MLP Laboratories: The Outbreak
by NeuPferdfurt
Summary: Naked, four legged freaks. Big bellies, ideal for testing experimental food, large eyes, just made for eye drops, brains big enough to discover the joys of drugs, mind-control and artificial nightmares. But friendship is magic... Disclaimer: Trigger warnings for incidents of rape (chp.4) and racism, about the only elements in this grimdark goo-fest supposed to be taken seriously.
1. Iiiiiiih

Twilight Sparkle wasn't very happy about this. In fact, Twilight didn't think she'd ever seen a dentist before, strangely enough. But every pony in town seemed to go there for a checkup, and as Ponyville's newest citizen, she sure didn't want to stand out like that.

The dentist's office was at the other side of town. Spike had insisted to accompany her. For some reason, he seemed even more nervous than she was.

"Twilight, do you really think this is necessary?"

"It's really no big deal. Everypony is doing it. Don't you want me to be healthy?"

"Of course I want you to be healthy, it's just, this idea of you walking into that door, and then... and then they'll put drills into your mouth, and pliers, and little things that go "Iiiiiiiiiih"..."

"Gee Spike, thanks, I feel a lot better about this now. What am I supposed to do? Wait until they catch me and drag me in by force?"

Twilight was trying to sound cheerful, but it didn't have any effect on the mood of her friend. The little dragon seemed downright devastated.

"Spike... I really appreciate that you've come with me, but you don't look so well. Maybe you should go home. I can handle this."

Spike took her hoof into his little hands.

"No, Twilight. I don't want you to go there alone."

"Spike, seriously, what's wrong? You look awfully upset."

Her little assistant seemed to have an inner debate. Obviously, he wasn't very happy with the conclusion.

"It's... nothing, I guess. Sorry I'm spooking you like this. I just don't want you to be hurt..."

"Oh Spike, she is a dentist, for crying out loud. Sometimes you have to accept a little pain in order to get better! Besides, I always brush my teeth - unlike a certain little dragon, may I add. I should be fine. No "Iiiiiiiiiih"... for me."

She gave him a big smile to illustrate that thought.

He smiled back, halfheartedly.

* * *

><p>"Miss Twilight Sparkle?"<p>

The dentist pony stuck her head into the waiting room.

"Looks like it's my turn."

The dentist blocked the door when Spike tried to follow his friend inside.

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait here."

"But I thought..."

"Please, have a seat."

"Don't you worry, Spike", Twilight said, "Be good now."

The dentist closed the door, and Spike was alone. He sat down right where he was, trembling.

"Please... Please don't hurt her..."

And a treacherous little voice in his head added: _at least not more than usual_.

"Lay down, please. And relax."

Twilight climbed on the strange contraption in the middle of the room. It was comfortable enough, but something seemed fishy about it. It even had a special sheath for the horn on her forehead. Most unicorn ponies considered their horn as a very intimate part of their body. This didn't feel... right.

Oh, Gosh darn it. Spike and his childish fear of doctors! He was sweet, but she'd never bring him to something like this again. He was contagious.

The exam itself was slightly unpleasant (a very prudish part of her even considered it a little humiliating), but nothing out of the ordinary. It was no surprise to her that the dentist ended up complimenting her on her dental health.

"I will have to fill out some forms. Please remain seated while I go to the other room. Feel free to have a little snack. That's how we stay in business, you know."

The dentist pony pointed to a round jar full of colorful candy on a little table right next to her.

"Thanks..."

* * *

><p>Twilight frowned when the other pony had left the room. Of course it made sense that she'd stay here until all formalities had been concluded, still, why couldn't she just go back to the waiting room?<p>

It wasn't much, just these LITTLE things... the way her horn was tied down... the smell... this strange candy jar... The candy DID look delicious, and it smelled good, too, but suddenly Twilight didn't feel very hungry. To put it mildly.

"Have you had your candy yet?"

The voice of the dentist from behind the door made her jump.

"Thanks, I think I'll pass..."

"Oh, you should really have some, dear, they're quite good."

"I have no doubts about that, but I don't think I can eat right now, sorry..."

"Suit yourself..."

Okay, what was going on?

Twilight didn't feel so good. She didn't feel good at all. What was wrong with her? She had been a little nervous before, but now her fear- yes, her fear!- rose exponentially. Her breathing accelerated. Her bones started to shake. She was starting to panic. And the worst part was, she didn't even know why. Suddenly, everything looked wrong. Like some sort of awful joke... or a trap. The door through which the dentist had disappeared, the colors of the candy in the jar, the posters and diagrams on the walls, and most of all... this horrible chair, or bed, or whatever it was she was strapped to. Yes, strapped! Getting off the contraption had never been an option. Who had tied her down? The dentist? And when did she do it? And how come Twilight didn't notice?

Was she about to lose her mind? The colors became painfully bright, she felt as if she was sitting in the middle of a firework.

And then, the colors started to fade. The walls turned gray. The posters and other decorative elements disappeared. The candy in the jar turned white, like little bones... No, they weren't candy. They were pills.

Twilight wanted to scream out of confusion and terror, but she heard no sound coming out of her throat. It was like a nightmare come true. A little sparkle deep down still tried to remain rational, to analyze what was going on. This part of her realized that the world she had known had disappeared. It didn't matter why, or where she was now.

Now was the time to ESCAPE.

While her body was shaking in a mad, unconscious effort to loosen the straps, her mind was racing as well, looking for clues.

She was in some sort of cubicle. The walls looked like cheap decoys. Where the ceiling used to be, there was now endless darkness filled with red stars and a small, but horribly bright sun at the centre. And there were noises, lots of them.

Some of them went "Iiiiiiiiiih"...

Still squirming on the siege, she gazed upon her lower body. And in a way, what she saw was worse than all the other things combined.

Naked, sweaty skin with a slight purple glow. Stubby hooves. A tattoo on her flank. These stitches on her big, vulnerable belly. An entire scalp of hair growing out of her tailbone. Oh Celestia, she had always assumed that was her tail.

Why? Why had she never noticed what she was really like? Why had she never wondered? By Celestia, she had lived without ever wondering what her coat was made of... She had just assumed she was... purple. PURPLE!

As if she had been living in a dream, a very sweet yet surreal dream...

Her throat was hurting. A lot. So she had been screaming the whole time.

She knew that she was going to faint, and she welcomed the darkness. The horrible cubicle became blurry, yet she could still see spindly, twisted things with glowing eyeballs descending from the darkness above. Mere hallucinations? Who was she to tell.

"My my, this one was screaming. I've never seen any of them waking up before. Why did the effect of the drugs wear off?"

"It was supposed to swallow the pills, but it didn't. No idea what happened in that little thing's brain."

"Maybe we'll have to take this one out completely."

"We'll see."

But eventually, these horrible voices started to fade as well.

* * *

><p>"Twilight!"<p>

"Wow, slow down there, tle buddy. You... you're kinda suffocating me."

The dentist accompanied them to the exit and waved them goodbye.

"So... how do you feel?"

"Well, what do you think? A little dizzy actually, I guess that's from sitting in that big chair... thing for so long with my mouth open."

"Nothing bad happened?"

"Spike!" Twilight laughed in disbelief. "She is a dentist, not some sort of evil dungeon master. And my teeth are in top shape, just as I expected. See, nothing to worry about."

"Can I... can I ride on your back?"

Twilight was amused at how shy Spike looked all of a sudden.

"Since when do you ask permission? Hop on already!"

* * *

><p>Spike felt her strong muscles moving beneath him, and he felt very small. Her skin was sweating under the artificial sun.<p>

Twilight was alright... She was alright, somehow, somewhat. Spike tried to ignore the red marks on his friend's skin where the straps had been, tried to ignore the little wounds where they had stuck the needles. Tried to ignore how pale she was. But he couldn't.

He would try harder. Just a little longer. One day after the other, right? Just like it had always been. Just like it was supposed to be.

"Spike? You're awfully quiet."


	2. The Meadow

Twilight Sparkle didn't scream when she woke up, not this time, but she was trembling all over.  
>Where was she?<br>Her bedroom in the library. Her glorious bedroom, in this glorious world of strong colors where even dirt looked cute and pretty- at least, compared to this... other place.

The unicorn pony began to relax. Everything was fine. It was a beautiful summer night and she was laying in her cozy bed, surrounded by thousands of books. She even heard her assistant Spike gently snoring downstairs. How could anything be so perfect?  
>Twilight drifted back into sleep.<br>She tried to ignore the voice in her head who insisted she was already dreaming. And that it was the... other place that was real.

* * *

><p>The next morning, when she had breakfast with Spike, the little dragon pointed out how tired she looked.<p>

"Bad dreams?"

"It's no big deal. Maybe we shouldn't eat dinner so late in the evening."

"I'll keep that in mind."

When Spike did the dish-washing, he asked:  
>"So... are you ready to help Rainbow Dash with her new performance?"<p>

"Rainb... Gee, I almost forgot. Please don't tell me I've overslept."

"You're an early bird, Twilight, you've always been. Look outside, it's still dawn. You should be there just in time without breaking a sweat."

"Aren't you coming?"

"Maybe later. I still got some things to do around the library."

"That's my little assistant. What _would_ I do without you?"

"Hehe..."

* * *

><p>"Hey, Twilight! Over here!"<p>

She discovered the light blue pegasus pony levitating on the other side of a blooming meadow.

"Good morning, Rainbow Dash!"

"And excellent morning, to be precise. Perfect flying conditions."

With a few powerful strides, Twilight had crossed the field.

"So... What do you need my help for?"

"Remember the magic floaty thingy you do?"

"You mean psychokinesis?"  
>"Yeah, the... Chinese one!"<p>

She pointed to a nearby pile of gymnastic utensils.

"See these loops? It would be great if you could bring them up, and I'll dash through 'm."

"Dash, you know I can only hold things in the air for so long..."

"Long? Who said anything about long! Just focus on getting them up. In fact, the faster they fall, the better! I leave it up to you to come up with patterns. You're the course master!"

"I see what you mean, but that sounds awfully complicated. You sure you're fast enough for something like that?"

"Are you _kidding_ me? They don't..."

"...Call you 'Dash' for nothing, I know. Fine, if you insist. But we'll have to focus- both of us."

"Oh, I'm focused alright. I am PUMPED. Let's DO this!"

Twilight grinned. It was hard not to be affected by her friend's enthusiasm.  
>She started with something simple: she launched three of the loops about fifty meters into the air and then ordered them to split up so they'd fall down in a scattered formation. In a brink of an eye, Rainbow Dash had passed them all.<p>

"Oh _come on_! Is that all you've got?"

"You've asked for it!"

This was exhausting, but Twilight had to admit it was also surprisingly captivating, in a very unscientific way. She used all of her imagination to come up with the most unlikely patterns, and even though Rainbow Dash beat them all, she felt that she was doing a better job at challenging her skills. In fact...

"Hey!", Rainbow Dash laughed, "What's up with the flower pot?"

"Catch it before it hits the ground... If you're pony enough to save a little flower, that is. I though I'd spice this up a little."

"Oh, you're ON..."

* * *

><p>At first, Twilight had just wanted to do her friend a favour, with the halfhearted generosity of a bookworm who is drawn into a sports event to be the referee. But with every round she felt that something was growing inside her mind, something as alien as it was intriguing. It was like a fever.<p>

Sweat started dripping from the unicorn pony's mane.

First there was interest, then there was joy, but now, it became something completely different. And it wasn't exactly... nice anymore. It was like an itch inside Twilight's brain, an itch that got worse with every minute.  
>She ceased to be Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's faithful student. The itch had filled her entire being. She was grinding her teeth, the horn on her forehead was glowing like white-hot iron. Somewhere in her head, she thought she heard a noise, like a tiny drill... "Iiiiiiiih..."<br>Only that she didn't really think anymore.

Rainbow Dash didn't notice any of these changes. She was happy. More than that. This was a BLAST- even for someone like her, who never seemed to get enough action. She had chosen Twilight as an assistant knowing that no other unicorn matched her skills, but still, this was something completely unexpected. And Rainbow Dash loved it.  
>She even forgot what this was all about, her very mind dissolving in the heat of the moment. There was only speed. SPEED.<p>

And it still wasn't fast enough for Twilight. Her voice of reason would have told her long ago that she had to be careful, that she might hurt her friend if she pushed her too hard. But the voice of reason was gone.  
>FASTER!, the new voice in Twlight's head screamed, SHE HAS TO PUSH THROUGH! SHE HAS TO BURST THE BUBBLE!<p>

Rainbow Dash saw it- the last loop. On the other side of the meadow. Twilight had barely flipped it in the air.

Suddenly, she felt as if a black hole had opened up in her stomach, drawing in her heart and her guts. An all too familiar feeling of loss and despair. All enthusiasm was blown away. She was Rainbow Dash, but she couldn't do this. Ultimately, she would fail. Though she was known for "tooting her own horn louder than the brass section of a marching band", as Applejack put it, deep down the pegasus pony was convinced that she was destined to fail. She would never be accepted as a member of the Thunderbolts. She would never go down in history, at least not the way she intended. She would become an anecdote, the patron saint of FAILURE. Rainbow Crash.  
>She couldn't do it.<p>

But she would!

The bubble of doubt that had built up in her viscera burst the very moment that it had formed.  
>Before she knew it - arguably, she didn't exactly "know" anything at this point, not anymore - she dashed towards the final loop.<br>It felt as if her skin peeled off, her eyes became dry like sand paper, her heart stopped beating. It seemed like a miracle that she didn't leave her own guts behind, trailing them like the tail of a kite.

She passed the loop, and all color vanished from the world.

* * *

><p>Rainbow Dash was propelled high in the air by her own momentum, and then she simply let herself drop, using her wings as a parachute only by reflex.<br>It was only when she hit the ground and opened her eyes again that she realized how everything had changed. On the other side of the loop, there was no grass. There were no flowers.  
>There was no sky. Instead, there was a huge white dome with an artificial light at the centre. Smaller lights were blinking on the walls, and there were eyes. Black, glossing robot eyes everywhere. The air was filled with the sound of machinery- and screams.<p>

A hole appeared in the part of the wall closest to Rainbow Dash, and a metallic arm appeared, incredibly long and with a sickening number of joints- more than anything should have. It made horrible, clicking noises as it unfolded, coming closer to the pegasus pony with every new segment. Rainbow Dash had never been so terrified in her entire life. There wasn't even a proper word for what she felt.

The metal arm brought its final segment into position, sprouting one of these ghastly black eyes as well as a long, translucent needle. Rainbow Dash was lying on her back, paralyzed except for her mouth and her throat, which allowed for a deep, constant moan of terror.  
>The black eye was zooming back and forth and from one side to the other, as if it was examining her.<br>Then the arm darted forward, and the needle was sunk right into the pony's belly.

Dash felt tears running down her face as she watched the needle sucking up her blood. She started sobbing.  
>The arm rose up again, and again it seemed to study her.<br>She though that if there was anything like an emotion in this stare, it was utter disdain. And why not. She was disgusting. She was a failure. She deserved this. She deserved to be chased out of Ponyville, right into the sterile, icy depths of hell. She deserved to be disemboweled and thrown away.  
>The translucent needle was sucked back into the mechanism, and instead, a new needle appeared, much thinner than the previous one. This time, the arm went for Dash's forehead.<p>

Rainbow Dash screamed.

* * *

><p>When she regained consciousness, the arm had disappeared. She was still crying, but things were changing once again. At the far ends of the dome, the white tiles were turning green and started sprouting flowers. The meadow returned. The noises of the machinery were slowly replaced by the chirping of birds.<br>Someone was coming. It was all blurry, but some sort of quadrupedal monstrosity was coming right for her. Dash tried to move, to slide on her back, but of course she was way too slow.

"Dash? Are you alright?"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

She could see it now. It was a four legged freak with purple skin, and a horrible, glowing implant on its forehead. It was glancing at her with its incredibly large eyes.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Dash, what's wrong? It's me, Twilight!"

Rainbow Dash was shaking her head in disbelief. But slowly, she started to understand.

"Twilight...? Is that really you...?"

She looked down at her own body, lifted her stubby hooves to her face. Her horrible, fleshy stumps.  
>Once again, she fainted.<p>

* * *

><p>She woke up at Ponyville's little hospital.<br>Everything was nice and peaceful. Birds were singing outside her window, the sun was shining. It was nice and warm in her room, and her bed was cozy.  
>A gentle knock on the door, and her friends came in.<p>

They had even brought some cupcakes.

"Hey, guys..."

"Oh Rainbow Dash, I am _so_ sorry..."

"For what? You didn't do anything wrong, Twilight. And besides, I did it, didn't I..."

The pegasus pony was frowning.

"What happened, anyway? I know that I was... scared, it was all so..."

"You crashed into a hedge at the rim of Everfree Forest. It took me some time to find you."  
>"A hedge, eh... I really freaked out back there, didn't I? You must think I'm a wuss or something..."<p>

"No way!", her friends protested.

"It was probably just the aftershock from the adrenalin", Applejack suggested, "Twilight said you did some fancy flying back there. Probably broke a few records along the way."

Rainbow Dash sniffed.  
>"You think so?"<p>

"Oh, I'm sure, sugar cube. They don't call you 'Dash' for nothing."

* * *

><p>Since she had suffered no physical injuries, she was allowed to leave the hospital on the same day, and her friends stayed with her until she felt strong enough to leave her bed on her own.<br>Most of her fear and her sorrow gently dissolved in the warm embrace of her friends over the following days, but some cracks would never close again.  
>Deep inside, there was a part of her that was still convinced that all she had seen back in the meadow was real. That it was her punishment. That she was a failure and didn't deserve to live in this beautiful world, together with her friends.<p>

There was a special place for ponies just like her. Sooner or later, she would have to return.


	3. Cupcakes

Spike heard the moaning upstairs, and he knew Twilight was having nightmares again.

Twilight Sparkle didn't like to talk about dreams in general, she was way too proud of her rational mind to admit that she paid any attention to them. And she hadn't told Spike about the recent series of nightmares either.

She didn't need to. Spike knew all too well what was going om. At least he could make solid guesses.

* * *

><p>Spike remembered how it used to be.<p>

The illusion used to be perfect, it used to be so good in fact that even he managed to make himself believe it was all true. For days and weeks in a row, he could drown his memories and his conscience in the illusion that they were actually living in a magical land.  
>He managed to forget the world of the pipes, the syringes, the giant glass tubes, the dark corridors and white domes, the ever watchful cameras. He even managed to forget what <em>he<em> was- and what he did.

Spike didn't know what had changed. Why one day the "gems" weren't enough to make him forget anymore. Why he kept on thinking about the things They did to his friends while distracting them with fairytales so they wouldn't resist.

What had happened to Twilight Sparkle was his fault. He was becoming too nervous, it became harder and harder for him to hide his fear and his guilt. And Twilight... of course she had started to notice. They were living under the same roof, for Pete's sake!

Somehow, Spikes suffering had spread to Twilight as well, and she started having... doubts.

And then the inevitable had happened: She had started resisting, probably without even noticing what she was doing.  
>She had awoken. She had seen... the truth.<p>

They had wiped her brain clean of the memory of the incident, but the trauma had been too strong, and nasty little bits of it remained buried in Twilight's subconscious. Thus the nightmares.  
>But of course they weren't the real problem.<p>

The real problem was that it might happen again.

Spike did not want to think about these things.  
>He wanted to curl up in his basket and pretend that nothing had changed. Pretend that the illusion was the truth and reality merely a twisted nightmare.<p>

He was a coward. Deep down, he had always been a coward.  
>Sticking his head in the sand was the only option.<p>

"I love you guys..."

But he would not be able to save anyone. No sir, not this pathetic little stooge.

* * *

><p>Luckily, Twilight was too tired herself to notice the dark rings beneath her assistant's eyes.<br>He had made a big breakfast for her. Spike had started pampering her quite a bit since the incident with the dentist.

She didn't really seem too notice the changes in his behavior, or at least she didn't feel the need to comment on them. Not long ago, he would have tried to gain her praise and invited her to recognize his greatness. That was back when he was ready to tell himself he was worthy of praise. He tried teasing her occasionally to keep the act up, but that was all it had become- an act.

When the unicorn pony had left to help Rainbow Dash with her flight practice, he went into the library and started putting the data interfaces Twilight had left on the floor back into their respective slots. Under the influence of the "gems", Spike could see these things the way the ponies saw them- dusty old books full of runes and magic. That was nice, but when doing his chores, Spike preferred to focus and switch to a more... precise vision of things. It helped getting things right.

The gap between reality and illusion wasn't very problematic for the ponies themselves- as quadrupedal organisms, they weren't exactly made for complicated manual tasks anyway. Besides, Spike thought, the gap wasn't really all that big. That was both the funniest and the saddest part of the whole deal.

Hell on Earth, painted in pink.

Spike sat down in front of the fireplace, which was really a huge monitor that had a chimney fire for a screen saver.  
>Yet another thing that was so funny the little dragon felt like killing himself.<p>

He pressed a button on the keyboard, and the fire was replaced by the central Ponyville database. A few other keystrokes later, the program started downloading updates for the "books" he had just put back into their "shelves".  
>Keeping Twilight Sparkle occupied, making sure she would go all the way.<br>Making sure she would continue to produce results.

This had been part of his daily routine for as long as he could remember. They had created him just for Twilight, to keep her fed and healthy, to help her evolve- and to keep her ignorant. He _wanted _to believe that he was her assistant- but that was not quite the right word, was it?

He was interrupted by a horrible little noise, the acoustic equivalent of being stepped on the foot. He found a new message from Canterlot Central.

He read it once, he read it twice.  
>With a frightening CLONK, a ridiculously large syringe appeared in the slot beneath the monitor.<p>

_Apply serum E PV PP 33 manually within the next 48 hours._

Spike examined the content of the syringe. It wasn't a potion. This was something organic. Mutant stem cells. He could almost see them crawling around. If they got into Twilight's brain, she wouldn't just be drugged. She would be... changed.

No way!

Spike replied to the message, demanding confirmation.

Only a few seconds later, he got the answer.  
>It was the same message, word for word. Spike counted to ten.<p>

CLONK.

Another syringe.  
>So this was handled by a computer. A stupid computer!<p>

Spike was furious. A machine didn't know how to treat Twilight Sparkle!  
>He would NOT put that thing into her cranium just because it had been burped up by a random automaton!<p>

But did he have a choice?

"Think, Spike, THINK..."

He could refuse.  
>Spike knew that as a specialized field pawn, he had a certain discretion. But not much. They were watching his every step. He was pretty sure most of the observation was done by computers, and they would only alert their superiors -whatever <em>they <em>might be -in case of an anomaly of a certain degree.

If he refused to execute the orders, however, even those issued by the lowly computers, he would put himself into the spotlight.  
>As well as Twilight.<br>Canterlot Central would pay closer attention to their case. If the surge of anomalies in this sector had not caught Their attention by now, this would definitely be the final straw.  
>They would start to see a pattern.<p>

"Oh, Twilight..."

* * *

><p>There is no harm in keeping all options on the table, Spike told himself.<p>

He did not _want_ to use this "serum" on his friend, but, if it turned out to be the only way... if within 47 hours he wasn't able to think of another solution...

So he did what he was supposed to do. He started to prepare the injection.

The main problem was to find the right moment to plunge this thing into her brain.  
>Normally, this was taken care of by the ponies' ability to simply <em>ignore<em> or to _forget_nasty things. Only month ago Spike would have used this narwhal tooth-sized needle on her in plain daylight and no one, including herself, would have taken any offense at it.

But these times were over. Twilight was having doubts, a deadly acid that would destroy the pink bubble that had always protected her mind.

So Spike would have to operate at night, when she was asleep. Only that Twilight was not a sound sleeper anymore.  
>The mere thought of her waking up in the middle of the night while he was standing next to her, ready to stab her in the head head with this horrible needle...<br>So he had to take certain precautions.

That's when he got the idea with the cupcakes.

* * *

><p>Sugar Cube Corner was one of the few stores in Ponyville that had no obvious benefit for Them- it existed only to make the ponies happy. Because happy ponies wouldn't ask questions.<p>

To the ponies, it appeared to offer a great variety of backed goods; in reality, these things were all made of the same, mildly nutritious goo, in different flavors.  
>Much of the processing was done by machinery that remained hidden to the town's inhabitants- including the very ponies "running" the business. The ponies of the bakery had only one thing to do- to come up with new creations by combining different flavors.<p>

Like in many other areas, They weren't putting much effort into creating and maintaining the illusion- instead, They had created a system in which the ponies could fool themselves.

* * *

><p>"Oh, hello Spike!"<p>

"Hi Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie Pie was on duty today. Excellent. Everyone knew she made the best cupcakes.  
>He was a lucky little dragon.<p>

"The cupcakes look great today. Say, do you remember this one flavor Twilight liked so much...?"

"Do I! I would NEVER forget a friend's favorite cupcake!"

Of course she wouldn't.

"If you have the time, I would like to order a bunch of those..."

"Time? Time? No, I don't HAVE any time, but I'll MAKE some! Follow me!"

And off she bounced to the kitchen.  
>Her younger assistant hurried to take her place on the counter, rolling her eyes. Yep, that's what it was like to work with Pinkie Pie.<p>

She had already started to prepare the dough.

"Could you hand me the sugar?"

"Here you go..."

"Oh, and some orange juice..."

Good thing that Pinkie didn't actually _see_ the ingredients she was using.

Spike wasn't very picky when it came to food- to him, it all looked and even tasted more or less the same.  
>But that was because he had a little more... insight than his pony friends.<p>

"Now, be a dear and get me an okapi."

"A... what?"

"Okapi. You know, little forest giraffe, white stripes. They're rare, so you better start looking."

"Don't tell me you actually need an okapi for the cupcakes."

"I didn't tell you which part of the okapi, did I? Wait... what cupcakes? Oh, right..."

"So no okapi?"

"Maybe later."

"So... can I get you something else?"

"The sugar."

"I already gave you the sugar."

"I mean the more sugar. Also, the more honey, while you're at it."

"I didn't hand you any honey before."

"You know, I didn't want to _say_anything..."

"So I was supposed to give you honey without you even asking?"

Pinkie Pie turned around and bulged one of her eyeballs into Spike's face.

"How much _honey_ do you think I need, _mister_?"

"...Too much?"

"EXACTLY. Now for some chocolate chips... Good... and the buzzer, please."

"You mean this thing... OUCH!"

"Yes, that thing. No need to bring it over here, it was just for you."

* * *

><p>Before he knew it, the cupcakes where in the oven.<p>

He felt the need to sit down and to analyze the things he and Pinkie Pie had said- or yelled -and to put them into some sort of order that his brain could deal with. Had they been fighting? Joking? It was hard to tell. With Pinkie it always was.

Pinkie Pie came to his side, and together they looked into the oven, which was now glowing in a gentle orange. And this moment was nice. No matter which way you looked at it.

"Now we'll just have to wait while they are burning in their own little Hades..."

What a strange thing to say- even for Pinkie Pie.

Suddenly, Spike felt a little uneasy. Pinkie Pie's skin felt awfully warm and sweaty next to his, and the oven didn't make it better.

He looked around, and he found the "buzzer" Pinkie had used earlier to trick him. Where did she get these things? Spike couldn't think of a reason why They would provide the ponies with practical joke devices. She must have found it somewhere...

The door of the cupboard on the other side of the room was open. It was just a crack, but Spike could tell there was something in there... something that shouldn't be here at all. Like an okapi. Or a disemboweled security camera.

Was he just seeing things?

For once, Pinkie Pie was quiet and thoughtful. Suspiciously quiet.

"Pinkie...", Spike asked in a feeble voice, "How much do you know?"

It was as if he had flipped a switch. The earth pony exploded back into life.

"Uh, is this a quiz? Let's see, I know a whole LOT of things, like, did you know that eggs get stinky if you leave them in the sun and...!"

"No, I mean... Do you know about the... other place?"

"What other place are you talking about, Spikey?"

Part of Spike was disappointed, but the other part was relieved.  
>So that was it.<br>Pinkie Pie was just being good old Pinkie Pie, nothing more sinister than that.

"Never mind, Pinkie, just a stupid suspicion..."

He returned his attention to the cupcakes in the oven, but then the earth pony spoke again. The tone of her voice had changed only slightly, but it made him shiver.

"There is no other place, Spike. You of all people should know that."

He slowly turned around. Pinkie Pie's grin had faded. Spike felt his heart sink.

"What do you mean...?"

"There is no different place, there are just different ways to look at it. The candy and the needles from the sky make the ponies see nice things."

"Pinkie... The drugs don't really work on you, do they?"

"They failed me a long time ago. When I was just a little filly."

He wanted to scream, but he managed to contain himself, somehow.

"Oh Pinkie... I am _so_sorry..."

For a second, a vision appeared in his head, awfully live-like: Pinkie Pie pushing him right into the oven...  
>Into his personal hell.<p>

"Awww, don't make such a long face. It's not that bad. All my friends are here, right? Besides, it's like I said. It's the way you look at things. We may be stuck in a bad place, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun!"

He should have figured this out long ago.

Now, in the retrospective, it all made sense.

"All this time, and I didn't notice a thing... I thought you were just being... goofy."

"That's because you're a doofy."

Spike shook his head in disbelief. "All this time, you had to live in the darkness, while the others had at least blissful ignorance on their side..."

The second the words were spoken, Spike knew he was going to regret saying them. Pinkie Pie leaped forward. Gnashing her teeth.

"Blissful ignorance is still ignorance, _Spike_! It's all a LIE. You're sorry the lies didn't work on me, but I can think of a few other things you should be sorry about!

They are raping us and ripping us apart, EVERY DAY, while you only care about the anesthesia! But things have changed, Spike, haven't they?"

"I..."

"You can't keep up the lies anymore, can you? So what are you planning to do about this, buster?"

She had driven him into a corner, in more than one way.

"I... I don't know..."

"Well, you better figure something out, and FAST."

Her anger evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.

"Spikey, you need to figure out which side you're on."

She returned her attention back to the oven, as if nothing had happened.

"They should be ready in about twelve minutes. Now If you'd excuse me, I need to get back to the counter."

* * *

><p>"Spike."<p>

The little dragon almost fell off the stool he had been sitting on while waiting for the cupcakes. Pinkie Pie was standing right behind him.

"Rainbow Dash had an accident. I am going to the hospital now. The cupcakes are ready, you can take them. Put them in one of our baskets."

He felt the need to say something to her, but she had already left.

The cupcakes smelled great.

Spike had almost forgotten about his plan.  
>The reason why he needed the cupcakes in the first place.<br>It would be easy to put sedatives into these. Twilight Sparkle would sleep like a little filly... And wake up with a different brain.

Yeah. How great was that.

* * *

><p>Spike took the cupcakes with him to the hospital.<p> 


	4. Worms

Applejack was proud of her family's orchard.

It was hard work, and if you looked at the price the Apple ponies got for the literal fruit of their labour, it was almost safe to say that they lived in slavery. Though neither Applejack, nor Big Macintosh, nor anyone else in the family would ever have looked at it that way.

Ponyville needed them apples.

And the Apple clan was proud. Proud to shoulder one of the hardest tasks in the pony community. They saw themselves neither as the lowest nor the highest strata of society, but as reliable neighbours who did what they did best- slaving every day for a commodity so integral to the everyday life of the ponies that most didn't even waste a second thought on it.

* * *

><p>Applejack was more than happy to show Twilight Sparkle around the farm. The librarian had visited the farm before, but this time she had told Applejack that she would like to take a closer look, even something like a guided tour if that was possible and didn't make too much trouble.<br>It didn't make too much trouble.

If there was one form of bragging Applejack was more than happy to commit, it was bragging in the name of the clan.

* * *

><p>At the end of the little tour, Applejack brought Twilight to her favorite spot, on top of the highest hill on the farm.<p>

"Now feast your eyes on this sugarcube. Isn't it splendid? I could stand here for hours just taking in the view."

"I shall say. How big is the orchard anyhow?"

"Funny you should say that... Let's just say it's quite a hoof full. We work sector by sector until we're all done for the day..."

"And then you just continue working the next day?"

"As I said, it's quite a hoof full..."

"It's just... you seem to be harvesting all the time."

"Well, not ALL the time, Twilight. I mean otherwise I wouldn't really have the time to show you around now would I?"

"No, what I mean is... It never seems to end, except when it's winter. Almost every day you're out in the orchard. You have cellars and silos, and you put apples in them almost on a weekly basis. Year-round."

"There is no shortage on my watch, that I can assure you. There's a lot of hungry ponies to feed around these parts."

"Tell me something about Applebuck Season. We all helped you last time, because Big Macintosh had broken his ribcage, remember...?"

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I already admitted I could not have done it alone, I learned my gosh-darned lesson, get over it already!"

"In a way, it was a lot like the Running of the Leaves: It was something that had to be done before winter. Taking down all apples at once..."

"Like every year."

"See, this is what I don't get. The rest of the year, there is always apples. No matter how many you're taking down. It's only in the winter that they don't grow back..."

"Well, DA. Twilight, I know you're not from the countryside, so let me tell you: apples don't grow in winter. They really don't."

"But why do they grow back the rest of the year?"

"Because it's not winter."

"Week after week?"

"Personally I'm glad they do. You may not have noticed, but we're eating apples every day."

"It just seems strange to me that we have such a steady supply..."

"Oh Twilight, you think so much about things, I'm surprised your head doesn't burst like a big purple pumpkin- no offense. There is good ol' mother nature on the one side, and there is a carving for vital vitamins on the other side, and in the middle, there is the Apple family. And that's how it goes."

Twilight was slowly shaking her head.

"You're at the heart of the system... and you work all the time... without ever complaining, without ever asking questions, because Ponyville needs you..."

"Now there sugarcube, are you trying to make this big ol' workhorse cry? My, if you put it like this, I'm overwhelmed by my own glory. They should make me quite a possom of a statue, don't you think? Right in the middle of town..."

Applejack showed her friend the pose she'd like her monument to be. Twilight couldn't help but giggle, and at least for a moment she forgot what had troubled her.

* * *

><p>"Say, Applejack, do you have any... machines?"<p>

"Machines? We don't have no fancy automatons down here, my friend. It's all hooves and sweat, all traditionally-like, just as nature intended. What ever got you that idea?"

"I'm not sure... For a moment I almost thought... Ah, forget it. Thanks a lot for showing me around, Applejack! You have quite a farm down here. I won't bother you much longer, I bet you'll have to get up early in the morning again..."

"You're right on that account, sugarcube. Celestia knows this pony needs her rest... I better head for the stables."

* * *

><p>This evening, Big Macintosh stayed outside for a little longer and gazed upon the orchard.<p>

Big Macintosh didn't talk much. In fact, he didn't even feel much. Big Macintosh especially tried to muffle feelings that couldn't be traced back to their origin. But this evening, while gazing upon Sweet Apple Ackers, he couldn't help but feel sad.

The reason why Big Macintosh had given up feeling and thinking about everything was simple.  
>Because if you did, you might have come to the conclusion that none of this made any sense.<p>

* * *

><p>One of the benefits of doing hard, physical labour all day was that you tended to fall asleep quickly and that your dreams were deep and blue, devoid of the strange entities and cryptic messages that inhabited the sleep of ponies such as Twilight Sparkle.<p>

It was probably mere coincidence that Applejack woke up that particular night, maybe just one sound that was loud enough to reach the pony's sleeping mind.  
>Or maybe it was Applejack's mind itself which had changed without her even noticing. Maybe something about the questions Twilight had asked about the farm had touched something deep inside of her which had been dormant for so long. Maybe it was both, or none of these things. We'll never know for sure.<p>

* * *

><p>At first, Applejack was just staring at the ceiling, not even aware that she was awake. She couldn't remember ever waking up in the middle of the night like this.<br>Her muscles and even her bones were hurting. She needed her rest, and she needed it badly. So why was she awake?  
>Then she noticed the strange noises outside. Someone had entered the farm!<p>

Applejack leaped out of her bed.

"Son of a possum... !"

Whoever it was, they were going to pay. This was private land.  
>Also, they had deprived her of her rightfully earned rest. That's what you call aggravating circumstances.<p>

Applejack grabbed a lantern downstairs, and off she went into the night.

She expected to see the light of another lantern. But the orchard was completely dark. She had to follow the sounds.

With every minute that passed, her confidence was shrinking a little further. Applejack didn't like to think of herself as a coward, but she didn't like the darkness either, the deep shadows between the appletrees.

Somehow her hopes that she would stumble upon Snips and Snails, or any other pony committing harmless mischief, started to fade.

Then she saw light after all. Tiny, green dots in the darkness. Fireflies? Yeah, fireflies. The color was off, but whatever. It was also strange that they weren't buzzing around, just hanging in the air in an awfully geometrical formation.

They were floating in front of the silo where the ponies of the orchard had locked up the apples they had gathered during the day. Applejack also spotted a couple of shadows lurking around the structure.

Strange glowy lights or not, she was dealing with apple thieves!  
>Applejack dashed towards the silo and started to shout.<p>

"HEY! Now wait just a gosh-darn second! WHAT do you think you're doing?"

The shadows twitched, and Applejack was granted a sweet second of triumph before they slowly turned around and filled her heart with terror.

* * *

><p>Applejack didn't dare to come any closer so that the light of the lantern would have fallen unto the strangers, but she saw enough.<p>

Big, glowing eyes. Glass helmets. Dozens of spindly arms and legs. Even as they were staring at her, some of their limbs continued to move, picking up apples and sticking long needles into them.

And the green lights? No wonder they were arranged in such a regular pattern.  
>They belonged to the underside of a flying saucer.<p>

Deep inside Applejack's spine, something screamed. But Applejack didn't.  
>Instead, she turned around and walked back to the farmhouse. Slowly. Calmly. She felt the stares of the strangers on her skin, but she paid no attention to it.<p>

Because none of this was actually happening.

She went upstairs and curled up in her bed.  
>None of this was happening.<p>

And she managed to believe that.

Every time she heard another noise, her certitude was shaken, but then she would just rebuild it, good as new. Hour after hour. She was just dreaming, after all.

* * *

><p>In the morning, she got up for another day of hard work.<p>

She looked into the mirror and smiled.

"Just a stupid ol' dream."

She hadn't been sleeping during the last seven hours. The dark rings under her eyes were more than just circumstantial evidence.

* * *

><p>"Sis, you should try to sell some apples today."<p>

"What, you mean... these apples over there?"

"Yup."

"Why... sure, big brother... Right away..."

She even put twice the load on the cart she'd usually carry. She happily ignored the tiny little holes that could be found on most of the apples. No one had ever stuck a creepy needle into one of THEIR apples, no sir! Best quality from Sweet Apple Ackers.

* * *

><p>There were quite a lot of hungry ponies on the market place today. Applejack sold a lot of apples.<p>

She watched in horror as the ponies were eating them, seemingly ignoring the tiny red worms that were squirming around inside. Applejack had never seen mycetozoa, the crawling slime molds, but if he had, she would have had the vocabulary to describe the red parasites which had infested her harvest.

One of them even crawled right out of the apple and into the corner of the eye of a pony while she was eating.

Of course Applejack didn't see these things.  
>Because they were not real.<p>

"Gather around everpony! Get yourselves a taste of them apples! We have enough for everyone!"

She and her family had a job to do. Apples here, ponies there.

And that was the whole truth.

The only truth that mattered.


	5. Pinkie Pie is making a point

Boo!

And also Hi. It is me, Pinkie Pie!

Nothing against that Neustrasbourg-guy, really, but I'm afraid we're running out of time.

So I decided to interrupt the regular narrative to make a point. It's an important one, too.

All my friends are traumatized, raped, near-comatose, suffering from nightmares and hallucinations or have become murderers, and what is little Spike doing in the meantime?

Nothing, that's what.

He is walking around in circles, sighting and moaning and weeping and shaking his little head.

* * *

><p>There he is now, going on a little walk on the outskirts of Ponyville.<p>

Oh, but little does he know that he is being followed. Without a warning, he is pounced by a scary pink creature and dragged into a dark ally.

He is screaming and squirming and then he dares to open his eyes, to check who captured him, and now he is screaming some more.

I resent that.

"P-Pinkie Pie... what do you want from me? Also, since when are you the narrator?"

I am a pony of many talents. Right now there is only one question that really matters: What is YOUR place in all of this?

"I... I..."

Don't you I-I me, buster! You know why I'm here, Spike. This has been going on for too long. You'll have to make a decision.

"I can't..."

OH YES YOU CAN. This pony is NOT going to let you drag your sorry corpse from one day to the next while avoiding the issues. You DO exist, I won't let you pretend you didn't! And you ARE responsible for your own destiny. And for our destiny as well.

It's getting worse every day. So what is it going to be, _Spike_? What are you, a little schizoid NAZI stooge? Answer me! The audience wants to know!

"Oh, so you want to KNOW, eh? FINE! I will tell you what I think. I think you are RIGHT. I AM a stooge. I was created to serve, I was created to keep you trapped, to help Them exploit you. That's ALL there is to me. I am not your friend. I am TOOL. And I'm not going to help anyone!"

I can respect that.

"WHAT?"

Only that you just lied to me. That is not what you actually think.

Tell me, Spike, how do you feel? No need to answer, it's quite obvious you feel like SHIT. Stooges don't feel like shit, though they should. You feel like someone who is doing the opposite of what he wants to do.

Now normally I would say who am I, Pinkie Pie, to tell anyone what they should feel and what they should do, but right now, I need you. I can't afford to have you waste our time.

We need you. The REAL Spike. And I WILL break through to him, even if I have to kick him out of this sorry pile of self-loathing right in front of me.

Shall I start?

* * *

><p>I don't think anyone has ever seen little Spikey run that fast.<br>Silly Spike. He should know better than that.

He runs and runs and then he looks around to see if he is being followed. He doesn't see anypony, but he is suspicious and doesn't want to take any chances.

So he pushes a big red button on the side of a building, and a trapdoor pops open in the middle of the road. It's another one of Ponyville's special features the average pony is supposed to ignore.

* * *

><p>Spike jumps into the trapdoor and finds himself in a long metal pipe illuminated by little green lights. He is on his way to one of the many supply rooms where the MLP-staff is getting their "gems" and surgical instruments and other things that help them on their quest to enslave ponykind.<p>

It's one of these little safe places everyone would like to have to hide from the big bad world outside. No one is going to find little Spike down here.

He unlocks the door and enters the room. Just when the door closes behind him, he realizes that he's not alone.

Hi there! Now where was I...

* * *

><p>Again with the screaming and the running.<p>

He is now taking another tunnel, this one will get him back to the library.

Spike is checking every room at least twice. He has activated the security program that is wrapping the entire structure in an iron armour.

He has programmed the local security cameras to watch out for a very special pony, and to make loud warny noises when she is spotted somewhere in the general area.

He still doesn't feel quite safe. He knows that there is no point in expecting the impossible, after all, good old Pinkie Pie is just a pony, and as scary as she might be, she doesn't have superpowers (she really doesn't).

Still, the paranoia is overwhelming.

There. A noise.

It almost makes him jump out of his scales, but after a minute, he tells himself that he's just imagining things. If you ask me, he and Applejack should create their own little association, "Deniers Anonymous" or something.

* * *

><p>Finally, Spike is able to breath normally.<p>

All of this panic is making him hungry. He is on his way to the kitchen, but then he steps on something tiny and pointy that pierces right through the skin of his little foot.

A little scream of pain and terror.

What is this? A trap? Is he going to die? What is going on?  
>He pulls the little stingy thing out of his foot. It's a tiny piece of metal. Nothing unusual, one of the many machines inside the facility must be broken.<p>

Strange, though. This particular piece looks like it should be inside a security camera...

And sure enough, there is a noise coming from the kitchen.

This time, Spike knows it's the real deal.

But his feet seem to move on their own while the rest of his body is paralyzed with fear.  
>He is stepping around the corner, and then, trembling from spines to toes, he takes a look into the kitchen.<p>

It is empty.

No one there.

No one.

* * *

><p>Spike is scratching his head. He feels a little dizzy, so he decides to sit down at the kitchen table.<p>

That's when the lights go out.

On the outside of the library, the steel barricades are vibrating from the mighty scream they are trapping inside.

* * *

><p>When the lights come back again, Spike is still alone in the kitchen. Or should I say, again?<p>

On the table, there is a pink cupcake.  
>And next to the cupcake, there is a note.<p>

But when Spike opens the note, there is no letter inside. Just a tiny piece of glass.

Spike is looking into his own face: It's a mirror.


	6. The other side

Twilight Sparkle was already wide awake when Spike flipped the light switch. She didn't sleep very well these nights.  
>It was not so much the fear of the nightmares as the fear of waking up, and realizing that the nightmares had followed her into her life.<p>

"Spike..? What's going on?"

"...We need to talk."

* * *

><p>He sat down at her bedside.<p>

He looked troubled. Scared, even. He tried to look into her face, but flinched away the second their eyes met.  
>In a way, this didn't surprise her. She could see her own reflection in his eyes- pale, trembling, a mere shadow of her former self.<p>

"Okay. I can tell you're worried about something. Why don't you just...?"

"I don't know where to start. This is important, Twilight."

He gathered all the courage he had.  
>Oh, she was going to hate him, he thought, and rightfully so. Or worse still, she would not even want to listen to him, even though her very life depended on it.<p>

So what? This was the moment of truth.

"Twilight, you were having a lot of nightmares recently, weren't you?"

"I don't know what you..."

"Of course I'm talking about those nights where you were sleeping at all."

"Spike, I..."

"This is very hard for me. But I made a decision.  
>I am going to tell you why you're feeling the way you do. I'm going to tell you what I think is really going on here. I want you to brace yourself. This is going to be a shock for you, so I'll try to go slowly..."<p>

He took her hoof into his little hands, an awkward gesture she had never observed on him until... well, until this strange day where she had gone to the dentist.  
>The day the darkness had come into her life.<br>The unicorn pony pulled her hoof away, and Spike sniffed.

"We don't have much time. I have turned down the cameras in this room, but..."

"Cameras...?"

Twilight didn't like this at all. She felt the sudden urge to hide under her blanket. She didn't resist that urge- it was just that she was unable to move. It was hard for her to do even as much as breathing.

She didn't know what Spike was going to tell her, but her heart was filled with a terrible certitude: that she would not like what her little assistant had to say. The dentist, the nightmares, this very moment of terror- it was all connected.

Twilight felt as if she was balancing at the edge of a cliff. Any second now, Spike was going to push her.

"Breathe, Twilight! Breathe for Pete's sake! Look, forget what I said, relax, maybe we can just..."

"PUSH ME ALREADY!"

"...What?"

"I mean, SAY IT. I am TIRED of this. Spike, I am scared. I am SO scared. I can't go on like this. Please, Spike... Make it stop. GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"I..."

"SPIKE!"

"It's all a lie, and They're going to kill you!"

He tried to catch his breath again.

"Twilight, this place is not what it seems..."

* * *

><p>At first Twilight's brain wasn't able to process any of this. She just heard Spike shouting and making little scary noises.<p>

But then she looked at him, saw the fear in his eyes, the urgency... And something else.  
>Spike had come to warn her.<br>Because he was worried about her.

Much to the little dragon's surprise, Twilight started to smile.  
>It was the sort of smile that could erupt into a nervous breakdown any second.<p>

Maybe, Spike thought, she is running amok right here and now. Maybe she'll kill me on the spot. Odd knows I'd deserve it.

Instead, Twilight spoke softly to him.

"You're quite upset Spike, aren't you? No worries, we'll figure something out."

"But Twilight, this isn't just any problem, this is..."

"Is it real?"

"...What?

"Is it real? Is it a bad thing? A real, bad thing?"

"Well, NO, it's EVERYTHING, actually, and..."

"Everything is still just a thing."

* * *

><p>Twilight contemplated the device Spike had just put in front of her.<p>

Her mind was trying to drift away, but she forced herself to concentrate on this horrible, alien instrument right in front of her eyes.

Spike started to explain it to her, slowly, but at least now his voice was steady.

"This is a syringe, Twilight. It contains mutagen cells.  
>This syringe was given to me a few days ago. I was supposed to use it on you- that's right, to sting that needle -notice the length- right into your very brain. And to fill your skull with these plasmids that would change the very structure of your cerebrum, the very way you think and act- turning you into a different pony.<br>Any questions so far?"

He nodded at the blank expression in her face.

"That's what I thought. We are going to do this step by step. I need you to look at everything you know- I mean, pretty much everything - in a different way.

Ponyville, for instance. Me. Yourself. Ponies. Magic, even!  
>I am sure you have noticed a lot of strange things. I am now going to give these things names, and I'll try to put them into context..."<p>

* * *

><p>Once Spike got started, he went on for hours. He had always wanted to do this. It was a confession he needed quite badly.<p>

"... And thus everything is starting to fall apart. Once They get the impression that They are losing control, They will try to eliminate us and everyone we know. I'm afraid we don't have much time.  
>So in summary... THIS is the problem."<p>

Twilight was slowly shaking her head. She was feeling dizzy.

"It's alright.  
>You have to think I'm crazy.<br>Well, I most certainly am.  
>Because I was playing by their rules, and because I am now breaking these same rules.<br>I couldn't keep lying to you any longer. I allowed so many bad things to happen. I tried to tell myself that They were harmless- righteous, even! Even though I saw what They're doing to you. You have a right to know. You have a right to chose. I should have realized that much sooner..."

Twilight was trembling more than ever.

"It's alright. Your mind is fighting the drugs and the hallucinations- now that it knows what to look for. Remember this: No matter what happens next, I will be by your side..."

* * *

><p>Ever since Spike had started talking, the world had been losing its colors. Friendly, round shapes had turned into rectangles. Wood was turning into plastic and metal.<p>

Twilight started noticing objects which she had ignored before, and familiar things were turning into something else.

This painting, for instance. Twilight had never paid any attention to it, it had just been part of the decor. Now that she looked at it, it didn't seem to be a painting at all. More like a plate of glass with buttons and switches all around the frame.

And the books, the scrolls, they were just... discs, of some sort.

And then Twilight looked at her own reflection on a polished piece of metal.  
>She started to notice the pores, the little drops of sweat, even the tiny hairs growing inside her nose.<p>

And when she looked up again, everything, absolutely everything she knew was gone. Gone for good.

She would never see Equestria again.  
>She was seized by a terrible feeling of loss and despair.<p>

Twilight Sparkle started to cry, and Spike was holding her.

* * *

><p>She and Spike went for a little walk.<p>

Just as Spike had told her, instead of a sky, there was a ceiling with great domes in it. It was there where the weather was generated- the pegasus ponies would pull it right out of the domes according to Ponyville's needs. It was like providing a hamster with building material for its nest.  
>The buildings were really stables made from the same glass and metal as the surrounding area.<p>

All the ornaments and details Twilight had previously seen had merely been products of her drug-enhanced imagination. If the ponies had ever bothered to compare their different visions of ponyville, the scheme might have fallen apart a lot sooner. But who in their right mind would ever talk about wood carvings?

What appeared to the town's inhabitants as their daily routine, their jobs, businesses and other activities consisted mostly of going to certain extraction points where long tubes with needles on them would suck out their blood or other bodily fluids. If they were not removing entire organs.

Some ponies would run in what appeared to be giant hamster wheels to provide an additional energy supply for the very facility that was enslaving them.

There were also those ponies who spent their day within certain testing areas. It were mostly the unicorns, who would manipulate objects and solve puzzles using the nano-implant on their forehead, under the scrutiny of the omnipresent cameras and sensors.

It is one thing, Twilight thought, that They- whoever They were - had been lying to the ponies about everything. That they were harvesting their very life force without their consent. But there was something even more disturbing than that: The utter and blatant disdain they displayed for their little lives, their hopes and fears.

For Them, the ponies were mere things. You pressed one button to make them cry, and another one to make them laugh. If they were broken, you threw them out and made new ones.

Although Twilight Sparkle couldn't be sure about it, she thought that she had also learned something else about her oppressors: They were not invincible.

It was more of a feeling than a rational conclusion. And sure, maybe she would not be able to find a way out. But the important part was: She was not dealing with almighty, supernatural entities.

However powerful these creeps were, they were driven by greed and other lowly instincts. So they also had weaknesses. Necessarily.

They were not the central force of the cosmos, but merely a bunch of petty slave-owners.

So there was probably room for some... aggressive negotiation.


	7. The nonexploding alligator

Spike was leading Twilight Sparkle through the labyrinth of tunnels beneath Ponyville.

"What exactly are we doing down here? Don't get me wrong, I love freakish, paradigm-changing surprises as much as the next pony, but what I like even more is to be prepared... I'm not sure what to expect anymore..."

"I want you to meet someone."

They reached a tiny room full of monitors.  
>And in the middle of the room, there was a...<p>

"Wooooooo!"

"Pinkie Pie?"

"Aren't you excited? Cos' I'M excited! Now that there is two of us, there will soon be threeandfourandfiveandsix, and then, INFINITY! We will be LA RESISTANCE! There will be adventure, and EXPLOSIONS! We'll be fighting crime and the forces of... EVIL!..."

Pinkie Pie was bouncing around and humming some kind of theme song, happily ignoring that there wasn't really enough space down here to do that.

"I don't get it... You knew? I mean... YOU?"

"Me of all ponies! But I wasn't able to do anything big without you! I knew the day would come when we would all fight side by side against the machine! RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! Woooo!  
>On a related note, I made you cupcakes to celebrate- but I already ate them all myself because I was just so EXCITED!"<p>

Pinkie Pie hugged her perplexed friend tight.

* * *

><p>It took Spike and Twilight a while to calm Pinkie Pie down to a point where they could discuss their plans.<p>

"So you're telling me that you have both gathered enough knowledge to neutralize certain parts of the security system?"

"At least temporarily. I am supposed to know this kind of stuff, I am part of the staff. Though my skills are pretty much limited to what I need for my job."

"I have been sneaking into the dark and secret places ever since I was a little filly! I know every inchymeter of this town, and how to break stuff. You might say I'm a natural."

"But so far you weren't able to find a way out."

"We are able to punch holes into their defense, but we were unable to exploit them. These openings have to be small enough to stay undetected so They don't get suspicious and realize someone is messing with the machinery.  
>They are updating the security system every day. So basically it's always one step forth and one step back."<p>

"Sometimes two steps back... It's like the Pony Pokey, just without the fun."

"So... what do we do?"

"You're the smart one, Twilight. You tell us."

"You guys...", Twilight moaned, "This really isn't fair."

Oh, but they were making puppy eyes.

"Alright then. First of all, tell me everything you know about this place and what you were able to do so far. I need maps, layouts, detailed descriptions of the machines and the technology used. I need to know how They think. But first of all, there is something else I'd like to know..."

"What is it, Twilight?"

"Spike, Pinkie... Do you think there even _is_ a way out? You say all of Equestria was some kind of high-tech prison... How do we even know if there is another world outside? And what kind of world would that be? Perhaps it's even worse outside than it is in here... I am just worried that if we break out of this, we might be leading the ponies into certain doom... I can't just lead an entire people into the unknown."

"Think of it this way, Twilight. If this place really was so great, why would they work so hard just to keep you inside?  
>I can see why you're worried. Whatever we do, the consequences will be dangerous, maybe even diso... disastroo... really bad. But think of all the ponies who are born into slavery. Think of the way they're treating you. Outside, you may be able to shape your own destiny..."<p>

"And what if there is no outside? What if this is all there is?"

It was Pinkie Pie's turn to answer.

"Then we'll conquer this place. Smash the baddies. Make new rules. Spike is right, Twilight. We have to take our destiny into our own hooves."

* * *

><p>Spike put together a short video presentation to teach the ponies about the real geography of Equestria.<p>

Twilight learned that the Forbidden Forest was actually part of a large iron curtain that circled the entire country. What appeared to the ponies as mountains were really giant watchtowers and robot factories.

According to Spike, Canterlot was the centrepiece, a fortress that included the most important research facilities and where all important decisions were made.

The lands between Canterlot and the Forbidden Forest were pony-habitats where large-scale research and organ harvesting took place.

Equestria was a closed space. What appeared to be the sky was actually the ceiling. It was quite possible that the entire facility was merely a cave deep beneath the surface ("Or even on the ocean floor!", Pinkie Pie added. Twilight didn't think that was very helpful).

"We don't know what lies behind the forests. It could be the way out. It could be other places like this one. Perhaps it's the place where They live. Either way, They make sure no one passes through without Their consent. It stretches through all levels of the facility as far as I can tell."

"Say Spike, how safe are we down here?"

"It should be safe for about twenty more minutes. Then the computers will notice that the sensory systems in this room aren't working properly and fix the bug. We have to make all of our meetings quick and change our locations every time."

"We can go to my place afterwards", Pinkie Pie proposed, "if Spikey can hack into Sugar Cube Corner as well."

"I have already hacked into _all_ your homes... And I _probably_ shouldn't have mentioned that just now."

"We'll talk about that later."

* * *

><p>Pinkie Pie was serving them tea and cupcakes.<p>

Twilight sighted.

"There are still so many things I don't understand. Like the other creatures that live here... What's their place in all of this?"

Spike swallowed the cupcake he had just picked up.

"Some are merely pony companions. Some are test objects themselves. Many belong to the security and maintenance systems, just like me."

"What about Gummy? I can't see what a toothless alligator could be designed for... no offense."

Pinkie Pie's pet alligator had just waddled into the room, perhaps attracted by the voices.

Pinkie Pie giggled.

"Oh, little Gummy is the EVILIST of them all, isn't that right Gummypooh?"

"You see Twilight, 'Gummy' is actually an assassin. They noticed that something was weird about Pinkie Pie, but they couldn't quite put the finger on it (or whatever They have for fingers). So They sent Gummy. He is supposed to observe Pinkie Pie, and should she do something unusual- to attach himself to her..."

"Just like this!", Pinkie Pie exclaimed when Gummy locked his jaws firmly on her puffy tail.

"...And then explode. If you listen carefully, you can hear him ticking. Twilight...?"

The purple unicorn pony had taken cover behind the sofa.

They all listened to the ticking sound coming from Gummy's belly. Finally, it faded away, and Gummy loosened his grip.

"That's a _gooood_ boy!"

"We're not sure why he hasn't exploded yet. Might just be a malfunction..."

"Or maybe he just likes the birthday parties he gets as a reward for every year he's not exploding!"

"And you just keep him around?"

"They would get suspicious if he disappeared without going *boom*. Besides, I need him. He helps me focus."

"If you say so..."

But from there on Twilight Sparkle was trying to stay as far away from the alligator as possible. Well, trying harder than before.

"So what do you think, Twilight? do you already have a plan?"

"Well, there is one thing I know for sure... If we're going to go through with this, we'll need a team."

Pinkie Pie turned around to look right at the audience.

"You all knew it would go down like this, didn't you? Stay tuned for the next episodes, in which we will recruit our champions!"

"Who are you talking too?"


	8. The palace of needles

"Rarity? Spike, it's really none of my business, but can we actually trust your judgment on this? This is a very delicate situation, and we can't let our personal feelings get in the way..."

"Oh mare of little faith. Believe me, Rarity is just the pony we need. Besides, we'll have to tell everypony, sooner or later, so why not start with our friends?"

"First of all, we need to carefully plan our operation. Staying as discrete as possible. We can't have too many ponies involved at this stage."

"In any case, here we are."

"Where?"

"Oh, right, you can't tell. We're beneath Rarity's boutique. This trapdoor on the ceiling? It leads into her basement."

"You know, the thought that you have been sneaking around like this all along is starting to creep me out."

Spike pushed a button on the wall to open the trapdoor.

"You've seen nothing yet, sister... mind helping me up?"

He jumped on her back, and from there right through the opening.

"How did you get in before?"

"There is a tiny ladder. But I like this one better, hehe..."

"Very nice. Now how do I get up there?"

Spike lay down on his belly and reached through the hole.

"Gimme your hooves."

* * *

><p>"MY BACK! This was NOT a good idea. Maybe you should consider going on a diet..."<p>

"Oh shut up. With all these times I've been carrying you around, you owe me."

"With interests, apparently..."

"Shhh! I think I heard something.  
>It's so dark in here..."<p>

"The _stench_... Twilight, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Rarity...? Is that you...?"

Twilight felt her little companion tremble next to her.  
>There was definitely something else down here.<br>Steps in the darkness. Hooves? No healthy pony would have walked like this.

"T-Twilight...? Maybe you should... you know... light... ?"

Probably. But Twilight Sparkle wasn't quite sure she wanted to.

"Well, here goes nothing..."

The unicorn pony's horn started glowing.

At first, the two intruders didn't see anything. But the sounds came closer, and then the monster stepped into the light.

* * *

><p>Twilight started moaning. Her psyche was hurting.<p>

This... thing was not a pony. For a nanosecond Twilight was trying to convince herself that it was just one of Rarity's dress forms, but of course she had seen it moving. And now it was coming closer.

It had leathery skin that seemed to have been sewed together haphazardly. It really could have been some sort of puppet... If it hadn't been for the bleeding wounds.  
>It had no mane or tail. It didn't even have a head.<br>A blind and deaf creature. How did it even know they were there?

It made a strange, clicking noise, and suddenly it seemed to hover slightly above the floor.  
>Twilight saw why that was: Each of the monster's stubby hooves had sprouted a long needle, and now it was walking on these needles as on tiny stilts.<p>

The monster leaped forward, bound to stab Twilight with its front hooves on impact. The unicorn pony dodged the attack not a second too soon.  
>Now the monster was behind them, in the darkness outside their bubble of light.<p>

"What IS that thing?"

"We have to get out of here! Where is the tunnel?"

"Wait,_ No_!"

"NO?"

"Rarity is in here somewhere! We've got to find her!"

"Are you_ nuts_? We're not prepared for something like... this!"

"It might be the only chance we get!"

There were noises all around them. So these creatures were pack hunters- whatever else they might have been.

Spike hopped on Twilight's back.

"Quick! How do we get to the boutique?"

"I don't... You know what? LEFT!"

Twilight dashed into the darkness. There were stilt monsters all around. Twilight even collided with one of them, but she managed to get up before the monster did.

And then she ran right into a wall.

"You said_ left_!"

"So I should have said 'right'. Can we argue about that later? … WATCH OUT!"

Twilight leaped aside, and the front needles of the attacking monster got stuck in the wall.

"They walk slowly, but they strike fast. At least they don't seem to be very smart..."

"Look who is talking, Mister 'Left'! Now we do this my way!"

Twilight started running close to the wall. Through their tiny sphere of light, they could see that the monsters were trying to follow her movement, but as Spike had pointed out, their walk- and turn rate were rather slow. Finally, the stairs came in sight.

"Let's get out of here..."

Above the stairs, there was a trapdoor. Twilight pushed against it.

To no avail. It wasn't locked, but there seemed to be something heavy on top.

"No, no no no no no no no..."

* * *

><p>The monsters were already gathering around the stairs. It was only a matter of seconds before they would start climbing. Or leaping.<p>

Twilight was sobbing. She turned off the light and instead used her horn to work on the trapdoor.  
>She felt a sudden pain in her shoulder. Apparently one monster had attempted to pounce her and only missed her by an inch.<p>

The door flung open, and they crawled outside.  
>They managed to close the trapdoor just in time before the stilt monsters could follow them.<br>Twilight used her light spell again. Sobbing and shaking and trying to catch their breath, they looked around and discovered what had been blocking their exit.

It appeared to be a giant lump of flesh, with iron chains wrapped all around it. It emitted deep, humming noises.

"I-Is it... alive?"

"Maybe it's sleeping... Whatever it is."

The windows seemed to have been sealed with metal plates.

"I've never seen something like this. That's not part of the system."

It was cold in the boutique. So very cold. Twilight could see her breath hanging in the air.  
>Spike didn't seem to care (which didn't surprise the pony, she had already seen him sleeping on ice as if it was a soft cushion), but Twilight knew she couldn't last much longer.<p>

"S-Spike, I..."

"Already on it."

The little dragon pulled a large blanket from a nearby dress form.

"Here you go... Oh..."

The dress form beneath the blanket was missing body parts. And it started bleeding from its eye sockets as soon as the cover was removed. The blood was dripping on the floor.

"Oh Spike... what has happened to this place? Any chance this is all just in our heads?"

"I don't think so. We've got to find Rarity. Maybe we'll find her upstairs."

"That... thing just started moving.

And it's gaining... _MOMENTUM_!"

The lump was rolling towards them, apparently with the intend to crush them. Twilight discovered to her terror that her hooves seemed to be stuck to the ground. The humming coming from the monster's inside was spreading through the floor and right into her limbs.

"Twilight! Teleport!"

Right.

* * *

><p>When she opened her eyes again, she saw that she had brought them into Rarity's atelier.<p>

"Ooooh..."

"Let me guess. More monsters."

"I think I call them 'bag walkers'. It's always nicer when things have names, don't you think?"

They were coming closer from every corner. It wasn't possible to say anything about their anatomy, since they were covered from head (?) to toe (?) in baggy sheets. The air was filled with their sobbing and their moaning.

"Maybe they just want a hug."

"And maybe I don't want to find out. Are they blocking the path to the stairs?"

"Yes they are."

"Alright, then. Violence it is."

One of the monsters was approaching the pony from behind. She gave it a kick and sent it to the floor.

"Ouch. It's as if they were filled with sand."

She heard a cracking noise, and it was only by reflex that she lifted her right front hoof. Just in time: An incredibly long, nasty needle popped out of the laminate floor.  
>She was already hearing similar noises all around.<p>

"Oookay... I can do this..."

Twilight sent a pair of scissors flying through the air, stabbing one of the burka monsters. She didn't quite see what came pouring out of the wound.  
>Spike was breathing fire, but his tiny flames didn't seem to have much of an effect. At least they acted as an additional light source.<p>

"Can't you just teleport again?"

"It's on a cooldown, remember?"

Twilight screamed. This time, she hadn't been fast enough. She had lifted her left front hoof in time, but the needle coming out from underneath her left hind hoof struck home.

"Twilight! You have to get off the floor! Look at me!"

Spike had jumped off her back and right on top of one of the monsters. It was trying to shake him off, but he had already moved on to the next creature.

"Spike, I'm hurt...", she cried, "I can't..."

"You CAN! You must! NOW Twilight!"

Sobbing and her injured hoof throbbing with pain, she climbed on the back of a bag monster she had just knocked to the floor, and from there onto the next. It was like walking on a bouncy castle that wanted your death.

But this was no time for doubts. It felt like an eternity to her, but finally Twilight reached the stairs. Spike was already waiting for her.

* * *

><p>The upper floor.<br>Twilight Sparkle and Spike went straight for Rarity's bedroom, though Twilight was very much in pain due to her hoof. They had wrapped it in a piece of fabric torn from her improvised cape.

They were trying to Ignore the blood that was dripping from the ceiling, the noises in the walls.

They also didn't look into the bathroom, even though they learned through their peripheral vision that the mirror was broken and that the bath tub was brim-full with water. There was something big and dark floating just beneath the surface, but that was a mystery that would be left unsolved.

* * *

><p>Someone was singing in Rarity's bedroom.<br>It sounded like a child.

Twilight had thought that after all these things she had just gone through, nothing would give her the chills anymore. Silly mistake.

"Giggle at the Ghosties, eh Spike?"

"Giggle at the ghosties."

* * *

><p>"Gasp."<p>

"You can say that again."

Rarity's canopy bed had been replaced by something that looked like a cross between a sacrificial altar and a guillotine.

Where the walls and the ceiling met, dress-form monsters were dangling on iron chains, constantly moaning and swaying.

The chandelier had been replaced by a giant lump-monster, similar to the one they had encountered downstairs.

But all of this paled in comparison to Sweetie Belle, who was sitting on the monster bed, looking sickly and worn.

"_Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head... Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..._"

"S-Sweetie Belle?"

The filly looked up, and her eyes filled with tears. Though she didn't seem to have that many tears left.

"They don't want to go to sleep..."

"Hush, Dear..."

Twilight pulled her away from the horrible altar and hugged her tight.

"It's all going to be okay. I'm here now. Your auntie Twilight, remember?"

Sweetie Bell nodded and buried her face in Twilight's mane.

"Sweetie Bell", Spike asked, "Do you know where your sister is?"

"She's everywhere", the little ponygirl cried, "Don't you see? It's all her!"

"Shhh... There now... We have come to fix this."

* * *

><p>A horrible scream came from the wardrobe and made them all jump.<p>

"It doesn't like you", Sweetie Bell whispered.

"What is in there, Sweetie...?"

But the filly was frozen with fear.

"Alright, THAT'S IT."

Spike pulled up his imaginary sleeves and waddled towards the wardrobe

"Spike! I don't think..."

"I've had it. We will get Rarity back, and we will get her back NOW. So... BRING IT ON!"

He flung open the doors.

The wardrobe was empty.

"Wow. I guess no surprise IS a surprise as well. Hm..."

He turned his back to the wardrobe, scratching his head.

That's when the giant scissor monster leaped out.

* * *

><p>Its screams were shaking their very bones.<p>

It had the body of a young pony girl, but the legs had been replaced by gruesome prosthesis made out of blades and scissors, with a mind-boggling number of rusty joints.  
>The eyeballs had been torn out, and replaced with long needles that protruded from the sockets like robotic antennae. Her chest was a never-ending fountain of blood. In seconds, the floor had become quite slippery.<p>

Scissors, needles and blades were swarming around her like so many giant wasps.

Twilight put Sweetie Bell back on the bed.

The monster tried to spear Spike with her front leg. Not only did he dodge the attack, but he hopped onto the leg and started climbing.

"I do this for RARITY! I'll show you, you... bloody creep!"

But Spike didn't get far. The monster was moving just too fast, too spastically.  
>The little dragon was sent flying through the room, right into one of the trapped dress form monsters, which was instantly trying to strangle him.<p>

"Spike!"

Twilight slipped and fell into a puddle of blood.

With a glowing of her horn, she tore the wall monster out of its chains and hurled it at the scissor beast. Spike landed right in front of her.

"Thanks for detaching me before impact. That's what I call quick thinking."

"Detaching...? Right. Just as I _intended_... "

When the wall monster hit the target, the two creatures seemed to fuse into a fleshy... disaster. It was both very fascinating an very disgusting to watch.  
>After just a few seconds, the scissor monster had completely absorbed the other and went on with its rampage. But it was much slower and clumsier now. The smaller monster had been converted into giant tumors that were protruding form the scissor beast's flesh.<p>

"Okay. So I guess this is the way to go. Listen, I need you to distract the monster while I gather my strength to launch another projectile."

"You got it. No female of whatever species finds anything more... distracting than me."

"Even under these circumstances, I find that disgusting. -More so, actually."

* * *

><p>Surely enough, one wall monster after the other was added to the count.<p>

"And now, _dessert_", Twilight said to herself when she detached the chandelier lump.

Even under the weight of this last projectile, the monster was still trying to stand up.

Twilight had had enough. Covered in blood, her injured hoof throbbing, her horn as well as her eyes glowing, she stepped forward.

"Give it up! We are STRONGER than you! Rarity belongs to us!"

A giant scissor on multiple joints was coming right for her.

The next thing Spike saw was a flash of light.

* * *

><p>"Wow. Now that was a rather unpleasant encounter."<p>

Sweetie Bell sniffed.  
>"You call THAT unpleasant? You clearly haven't met Pyramid Pony."<p>

* * *

><p>Slowly, the horrors of the boutique were melting away. The entire place reverted to its former state.<p>

They found Rarity downstairs, crying.


	9. Spectrum

Rainbow Dash had been number two on Twilight Sparkle's wish-list. Number one had been Applejack. Twilight was convinced that Applejack's reliability, her rationality and her physical strength made her the perfect recruit and a vital addition to the team. It was only because Spike had insisted to get Rarity first that they had not talked to Applejack right away. This also meant that Rainbow Dash had been moved to place three.

Later, Twilight Sparkle would spend a lot of time thinking about this. She would ask herself countless times why she hadn't talked to Rainbow Dash first.

There are plans, and there is chaos.  
>Sometimes, you get the impression that the chaos is better organized.<p>

* * *

><p>Twilight sighted.<br>She and Spike were watching Rarity work. For the first time in days, the dressmaker-pony seemed to have reverted back to her former self. She almost looked cheerful, and after a while, she even started humming an all too familiar song.

"I'm still not happy with this, Spike. What happened the other day was just..."

"Why, exactly. Her magic is not the same as yours, but it's powerful alright. I've never heard of a unicorn creating things like these..."

"Excuse me? 'Things like these' ? Spike, it was pandemonium!"

"Pandawhut?"

"She brought her very nightmares to life! She created an entire world filled with monsters! Her insanity came pouring right out of her head and was trying to kill us! Her potential is truly amazing, but, you know... _insanity_?"

"Relax, Twilight. Rarity will be fine. She just needs something to focus on. This will keep her from thinking about... whatever made her go _loco_in the first place."

A sudden buzzing sound from Rarity's workbench made them both jump. She was currently working on something that looked like a chainsaw.

"You mean we are channeling her madness into a direction that's useful to us. I don't know, Spike. She might be better of with kindness- and therapy."

"Rarity won't be happy without her work. Trust me, now that she's back on track, she won't derail again that easily."

"But when she finally does, we'll all be DEAD."

"You're like a constant downer, eh?"

"Charlie the Unicorn reference! CLASSIC!"  
>Pinkie Pie had been sneaking in on them, finding just the right moment to test their vulnerability to heart attacks. Yet again.<p>

* * *

><p>Rainbow Dash was restless.<p>

Ponies who didn't know her well enough would have thought that these erratic flying maneuvers were part of her usual routine. They were not.

She watched the town and the surrounding landscape from every possible angle. She was starting to notice certain patterns. And though she wasn't quite sure what she was seeing, she knew she didn't like it.

Not that long ago, she had thought that the sky was without boundaries, that she enjoyed absolute freedom of movement.  
>She didn't.<br>The sky was full of invisible barriers, no-fly zones. All this time, she had been flying on a handful of pre-established routes. Now that her former innocence had been spoiled, she had lost the inner compass which had helped her navigate through the iron skies the way she was supposed to.

Rainbow Dash was like a fly trapped in a glass bottle.

Many ponies would have said that Rainbow Dash was exaggerating her own exploits and telling tall tales until she started to believe in them herself. And as athletic and talented as Rainbow Dash was, she also liked to cheat. A lot. She was a cheating cheetah. Her love-hate relationship with Applejack was partially due to the fact that the workhorse saw right through her.

But there was a part of Rainbow Dash that knew all too well what was real and what was not. This part of her accepted nothing but the bare facts, and it was never satisfied with embellishments and half-truths.

It was this part of her which told her that this place was all about embellishments and half-truths. She knew what she was seeing.  
>And there was another thing. She hadn't met with her friends for quite a while, but lately she had been following Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight and Spike around secretly. They were meeting at different places, sometimes vanishing for hours.<p>

They knew something they didn't tell her.

Well, screw them.

* * *

><p>It was rather ironic that it all started with a cupcake.<p>

Rainbow Dash didn't like cupcakes, not since that horrible nightmare.

Yet Pinkie Pie insisted on bringing over a basket full of baked goods from time to time, since she believed Rainbow Dash wasn't eating enough.

This time, when Pinkie Pie approached Rainbow's cloud mansion in her balloon, the pegasus debated whether she should pretend she wasn't home. She opted against it. No matter how much the thought of Pinkie's cupcakes made her shiver, the idea that her earth pony friend had come flying all the way to her doorstep in vain was simply too heartbreaking.

And even this could have been without consequences, if only Rainbow Dash hadn't decided this very day to break with her habit and actually try one of the cupcakes. Normally, she would have checked the entire basket and thrown away anything that reminded her too much of the nightmare. Yet this time, she decided to retain the last cupcake, and to give it a try. She had no idea why she did that.

And thus she found the message.

Hidden within the cupcake, there was a piece of parchment. It turned out to be a map.

Pinkie Pie would later assure that this had been an accident, that one of the cupcakes she had prepared for one of the _Resistance_-meetings had found its way into Rainbow's basket. But of course with Pinkemina Diana Pie, nothing is certain.

Rainbow Dash had no idea what this map represented, and yet it seemed awfully familiar.

The iron sky. The pieces started to fall into place, one after the other.  
>She was trembling, sweating. Suddenly, her mouth was full of crayons, and she started drawing all over the map. <em>Here<em>... and _there_...  
>RIGHT THERE.<br>She looked at her work. She had pushed her crayons so hard that several of them were broken.  
>She spat them out.<p>

She had drawn a rainbow, shaped like an arrow. The structure at the tip of the arrow was now colored in red.

Rainbow Dash was crying and laughing.

Laughing and crying.

Then she devoured the remaining contents of Pinkie Pie's basket, the flavour of the crayons still on her tongue.

* * *

><p>"Rainbow Dash! It is SUCH a pleasure to see you!", Rarity exclaimed, "Please, do step inside!"<p>

"Hi, Rarity. Good to see you too..."

Rainbow didn't like Rarity's boutique that much. This world of fashion and finesse was the last place that would make someone like Rainbow Dash feel at home.  
>But there was no other way. She couldn't do this without Rarity.<p>

"I'll be right back, dearest. I'll make us a cup of tea."

"Listen, Rarity... I have a rather odd request..."

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped when she finally noticed how much the inside of the boutique had changed. Apparently she wasn't the only one with odd requests.

The pegasus pony didn't even have the vocabulary to describe half of the things she was seeing. There were still a few beautiful dresses, but now they looked awfully lost, like colorful butterflies in an armory.

There were also sketches and open books everywhere. Rainbow recognized a book on alchemy she had once seen in the hooves of Twilight Sparkle.

"My, what a mess! I'm terribly sorry, Rainbow, but I am working on _so_many things right now... "

_Yeah_, Rainbow Dash thought, _I'd say at least forty at once. Does that sound like a good estimate, Rarity?_

"Listen, if you don't have the time to..."

"But OF COURSE I have time for you, Rainbow! There is no question about that. I'll do EVERYTHING you'll ask me for."

There was a sparkle in Rarity's eyes that the pegasus pony found rather intimidating. What had happened to her? Rarity had never been lazy, but this looked a lot like obsession.  
>Ah, well.<p>

Rainbow started describing her request. Rarity was listening very carefully and taking notes. To her horror, Rainbow noticed that things all over the place had started moving on their own. Even as they were speaking, metal plates were fused together, materials melted and were shaped into new, exotic forms.

_She is doing this_, Rainbow Dash thought, _She continues working on her other projects right now, while she is already working on mine. How is that even possible? Do I even want to know?_

* * *

><p>"This sounds like a marvelous idea, Rainbow!"<p>

"It does?"

"We're not going to waste any time. Please, hop onto this pedestal..."

"W-what exactly are you going to do?"

"Shhh. I'll need this to fit you perfectly. And I mean _perfectly_."

The blue pegasus observed with growing concern that a black liquid came floating into the room.

"I'm afraid this might take a few moments. I just realized that I still need to fix a few molecules... This is a new material I have developed earlier this afternoon, but I'm not quite satisfied with it... Yes, yes... Here we go..."

_Dude... did she just say 'molecules'?_

"There. This should do the trick. Now please hold still. You'll have to hold your breath for a few minutes... Oh, right, I guess you won't be able to do _that_. No worries. I'll have to do it in seconds. No problem at all. Now hold your breath please... excellent."

Without further ado, the black liquid was covering her entire body.  
>It felt like an eternity when Rarity finally said:<p>

"You can start breathing again, darling. I have created the openings for mouth and nostrils. Take a look into the mirror and tell me what you think. How does it look? How does it feel?"

"It's... it's like a second skin. This is incredible..."

"Oh no dear, don't move..."

Too late. Rainbow Dash had fallen off the pedestal and was now sliding over the floor.

"I'm afraid right now it won't allow you to walk. I really made it as smooth as possible..."

"This... this is amazing!"

Rainbow Dash was actually hovering slightly above the ground, because the suit was just so incredibly repellent.

"Yes, but I don't think it's very practical. I should probably give it another try..."

"No Rarity, this one is perfect. I won't need to walk in this anyway. This is for flying only."

Rainbow Dash was flying around in the boutique for a quick demonstration. Even though the suit was covering her wings, her flight was as steady as ever.

"Very well then. Please return to the pedestal, there is something else that needs to be done."

"Something else?"

"Trust me on this, dear."

Another bubble of liquid came flying through the air. Rainbow Dash gasped. It was boiling metal.

"Rarity..."

"It's okay, Rainbow. The spell is shielding you from the heat. Though I'll have to ask you to hold your breath again..."

And then her head was wrapped in molten metal.

It were a helmet, and some sort of corset for her chest and her neck made of incredibly thin yet resilient metal rings. Rarity had also added a pair of goggles.

"I want you to wear these beneath the suit. They are based on the very structure of your bones, and will fortify your skeleton."

"It is ingenious... I wouldn't have thought of something like that."

"Of course not, dearest. This is what I'm there for."

"Rarity... I haven't even told you what I am planning to do..."

"And I don't need to know. My work here is done. Please take care, Rainbow Dash."

* * *

><p>It was a beautiful summer evening. Clear skies, fresh air, even the wind was blowing in the right direction. Lies, but useful lies for a change.<p>

Rainbow Dash was sitting on the roof of her mansion, wearing Rarity's suit.

From up here, she could gaze over all of Ponyville as well as the surrounding areas.

It was time.

Rainbow put on her new goggles.

* * *

><p>With every flap of her wings, she was accelerating.<p>

She knew that she wouldn't be able to fly in a straight line, but thanks to the map as well as the experiences she had gathered since the incident in the meadows, she was familiar with every route in the sky. Even though she didn't see the obstacles, she was able to navigate with ease, so that she could focus on gaining momentum.

And then she dashed right into the Forbidden Forest.

Even at this speed, her reflexes and her knowledge of the terrain allowed her to navigate around the trees.  
>The whole forest came to life. Branches turned into wicked claws, darts were flying through the air, poison gas was released into the atmosphere. Electric fences lit up like Christmas trees.<p>

To no avail.

Rainbow Dash was busting through one security layer after the other. By now all hallucinations had worn off: She was seeing the forest for what it really was, a robotic inferno. And she was beating it.

Her target came in sight: One of the giant structures the ponies had come to refer to as "mountains", or more precisely, a small opening close to the top, secured by an electric field.

Without the suit, she would already have been fried hundreds of times, and without the helmet, she would have broken her neck.

Rainbow Dash had no idea whether she was going to survive the grand finale as well, and quite frankly, she didn't care.

_The time has come to welcome spring, a pegasus' job begins, and clearing all the the gloomy skies... and let the sun shine in..._

They didn't call her "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothing.

* * *

><p>She hit the target, though it wasn't exactly a sonic rainboom.<br>While opinions diverged on this as well as the following events, most ponies later agreed that this particular explosion deserved to be referred to as the "beginning of the end", as far as Ponyville was concerned.

* * *

><p><span>Spectrum<span>  
>by <em>AcousticBrony<em>

(as found on YouTube)


	10. Unicorn brains

Rainbow Dash was sliding down into the darkness, desperately trying to hold on to something- anything. But to no avail. The walls were just to smooth for her stubby hooves.

She was heading right for the horrible, grinding noises.

_This is it_, she thought, _what a lame way to die_.

Then she came to an abrupt halt.

"Helluuu."

"What... what happened... I... DERPY HOOVES? Is that you?"

"Derp."

"So they have thrown you in as well... Figures. Why are we stuck?"

"I lost my chewing-gum. That's making me sad."

"No one is going to believe this... Alright, let's figure a way out."

* * *

><p>Twilight frowned. Applejack had walked straight into Bronyvistus' office, but she hadn't come out yet.<p>

Finally, the unicorn left her desk and opened the door.

Applejack was sitting in Bronyvistus' chair, her hind legs on the desk. She was staring into the void, slowly eating an apple.

Then Twilight saw Bronyvistus. He was lying on the floor in front of the table. She had only rudimentary medical training, but she knew instantly that he was dead. No pony's neck should look like this.

"Applejack... You killed him..."

"You bet I did. Snapped his damn neck. He made me kill Rainbow Dash, who I loved more than anything else..."

"...Rainbow Dash is dead?"

Twilight let herself sink to the floor. So now it was official. One of her friends had died. Deep down, she had always feared that it was only a matter of time.

"She sure is. Dropped her into a meat grinder, just like that. Didn't know what I was doing. I reckon' I should have been suspicious when they told me to toss her into that scary machine. Now I can tell. You can always tell when it's too late..."

She took another bite from her apple.

Twilight felt like she was drifting away, tears were running down her face, but she forced herself to focus. She couldn't allow herself to crumble at this crucial moment. Now was the time to move.

"Applejack... All of this is horrible. Extremely so. But we have to act, and we have to act now."

"Whatever you say, Twilight. I'm mighty good at following orders, did you know that? I mahself didn't know how good until I tossed..."

"YES, but we really have to go now."

* * *

><p>"Hold on, Derpy... I'll get us out of here..."<p>

"I say we call SUPERMUFFIN."

"Do you have the muffin-hotline hoofy?"

"Good point..."

The blue pegasus pony had wrapped her front hooves in the chewing gum. With Derpy on her back, she was able to move up the slide, one centimeter at a time. Yet the top was still so far away... And her sweat was starting to dissolve the gum.

_I have survived so far_, she thought, _I can't give up now. Also, Derpy is counting on me._

"Can I have my gum back after you're done?"

"Sure thing, Derpy..."

Suddenly, there was a drilling noise right in front of her snout. First with terror, then with fascination, she watched how a dot of light appeared on the surface of the slide, rapidly turning into a great circle. And then the round piece of metal fell off, and a monster with a glowing horn appeared in the hole.

"Uaaaah!"

"Don't be alarmed, Rainbow Dash, it is just me, Rarity. I'm afraid with these gas masks I had to sacrifice style for function..."

Rainbow Dash started coughing.

"Speaking of which, you should put yours on right away. Please, let me help you..."

Rarity pulled the two pegasus ponies into the hole.

She gave an extra mask to Rainbow, then handed her mask to Derpy, casting an air bubble around her own head as a temporary replacement.

"There you go, dearest. My, Rainbow Dash, you look terrible."

"I would look a lot worse if it wasn't for Derpy Hooves. It is so great to see you, Rarity. What is this place?"

"Spike could explain this to you in detail, but for now you just need to know that there are lots of tunnels and pipes beneath Ponyville, and we have been wandering through this maze ever since the cataclysm..."

"Why can't we breathe down here?"

"Well, first of all, the fiends who run this place have cut the oxygen supply. What is worse though is that they are flooding the whole place with toxic gas instead, in order to smoke us out. Which is crippling our efforts quite severely, as you can imagine..."

"How did you know where to find us?"

"I didn't. But we do spy on Bronyvistus' brutes occasionally, and we learned that they suspected something got stuck in the grinder... "

* * *

><p>They arrived in one of the control rooms. It was just as dark as the tunnels, the only light source was a monitor. Spike was tipping on the keyboard, while supplying electricity to the computer through a tiny makeshift generator that needed him to pedal constantly.<p>

And there was Fluttershy, surrounded by dozens of little animals, who had their snouts covered by more primitive versions of Rarity's gasmask, barely keeping them alive.

"Spike! Fluttershy! Oh you guys..."

She and Fluttershy hugged.

"What are we going to do now?"

"We were finally able to contact Twilight. Now everything depends pretty much on her..."

* * *

><p>"Everypony! Listen to me!"<p>

Twilight and Applejack were running through the unicorn sector.

Colts of the Earth Pony Guard were yelling into loudspeakers, and several sirens came to life all over the city. Still, in Muzzle Street, Twilight was the centre of attention.

"Listen! We're going to break out. I have a plan, but I need as many unicorn ponies as possible by my side! It is going to be dangerous, but we have no time for doubts... just do what I say and... Hello? Any volunteers?"

"Maybe we should just stay inside...", a young colt said, "Wait until things have calmed down..."

"NO! Aren't you listening? I need your help! You need to come with me right now!"

Yet the unicorns were backing off, trying to hide behind one other.

"This can't be happening! COME ON! Move it! Please!"

"I will come with you!"

"Thank odd, at least one of you... SWEETIE BELLE? That's out of the question. You're just a filly..."

"Please, I want to help! It's what Rarity would do..."

"You're very brave - UNLIKE ALL THESE OTHER PONIES - but I can't accept your offer. You're just too vulnerable..."

"M-maybe if we back her up..."

"Snips and Snails...? Unbelievable. Doesn't anypony else have an ounce of courage around here?"

Colts in uniforms and drones were moving into the street, and the unicorns let them pass.

"Twilight", Applejack said, "I hate to break this to you, but we've got to leave. These kids are all we have."

Twilight Sparkle was going to utter an insult towards the remaining unicorns, but she decided to save her breath.

"Come on then."

Applejack was carrying Sweetie Belle on her back for the sake of speed.

"Were are we going?"

"We're going to punch a hole in the fence. And then... straight into the dark until I tell you to stop."

"This is quite an adventure, eh Snails, old buddy?"

"I prefer those in the comic books."

"I hear you, man."

* * *

><p>Twilight was worried sick. What if she was wrong? What if they weren't going to find their target? Well, it was too late for that now.<p>

And then it came in sight: a giant hose, one end going into a hole in the ground, the other disappearing far away in the shadows.  
>It was guarded by two strange, bipedal creatures in baggy suits, with goggles and gloves. They were armed with what appeared to be large tasers. When they saw the ponies, they yelled in terror and surprise.<p>

"What ARE these things?"

"Don't know, don't care. Just get them out of the way."

Applejack tackled the first creature before it could even use its weapon. The second one had better reflexes, though, and hit Snails with an electric bolt. He fell to the ground, shaking and covered in little lightnings.

"SNAILS! Why, you..."

Without even knowing what he was doing, Snips disarmed the flabbergasted marksmen with psychokinesis and knocked him down with the shaft of his own weapon.

"Wow! Snips, that was..."

"Will Snails be alright?"

"Yes. I'll lead the excess electricity in his body into... well, into one of these guys, why the hay not."

The ponies were trying to catch their breath.

"And now?"

"Now comes the interesting part. I have it all planned, but for what I'm going to do, I will need more than just my own brain. I need more processing power, so to speak. So I'm going to reach into your minds. I have never tried this, but I know it is crucial that you give me your permission. If you resist, this won't work."

"No problem... Oh man, there are some things though I'd like to keep for myself..."

"Sweetie Belle, your brain is the youngest and the most vulnerable. I won't lie to you, this could be too much for you to take..."

"I'm ready, Twilight."

Twilight Sparkle moaned. She would need every neuron she could get, but using Sweetie Belle's brain?

"Hold it!"

Another hole had opened up in the ground, and Rarity climbed out.

"Just in time. I heard you needed unicorns?"

"Rarity! Thank goodness..."

Then she saw Spike crawling out of the hole.

"Hey Twilight! Missed me?"

FLATS.

"Twilight, darling... I think you should roll over now. I'm not sure little Spike can breathe."

"Right, right... Ahem... Battlestations, everypony. Let's do this. Rarity...?"

"I know, Twilight. I will protect my sister's mind with all my might. Cast the spell."

* * *

><p>It was unlike anything Twilight had felt before. It was as if their four brains were becoming one. She could see from the corner of her eye how the eyes and the horns of the other unicorns were glowing, and then she was actually outside her own body, her consciousness floating in the hyperspace between their minds.<br>She had never felt so powerful. It was hard for her to resist the horrible urge to devour the minds of her friends, to absorb their powers permanently. But she didn't forget her mission.

Under her guidance, their collective mind reached into the hose, and into the labyrinth of tunnels beneath. They seized the streaming gas as if it was a single, solid object, and started forcing it back where it came from.  
>Within minutes, they had emptied almost the entire sector, and the pressure within the hose was incredible. Yet they still forced it further away, one centimeter at a time.<br>Finally, Twilight decided that this was as far as they could go. Hopefully, it was far enough. Now it was time for another spell.  
>She used Rarity's brain to cast a morph spell. She was actually able to visualize the individual molecules within the gas. It had sounded incredibly complex when Rarity had first told her about this spell, but with the brain power now at her disposal, it was as easy as doing a preschool puzzle.<br>Just a little tweak.

Applejack and Spike heard an explosion, far away in the distance. Then the ground was shaking, the hose was torn into shreds, and a cloud of fire kicked them all of their legs and propelled them through the air.

Applejack got back on her hooves, coughing.  
>"Twilight...? Rarity...? Are you..."<p>

The group was scattered all over the area, but everyone seemed to be alright. The unicorn ponies were bleeding from their ears and their nostrils, though it didn't look too serious.

"That was..."

"Intense."

"But what exactly have you done?"

"Yeah Twilight, what have we just done?"

"Hopefully? Set things in motion. Let's get moving, everypony."

The explosions and earthquakes continued. Obviously, the unicorn ponies had started a chain reaction.

* * *

><p>When they reached the town, all loudspeakers came to life. It was Pinkie Pie's voice.<p>

"Your attention, please! Everypony shall come to the library or the town hall immediately, depending on which is closer to your current position, obviously. These are fortified structures with large bunkers underneath. I repeat, please gather at the library or the town hall. Lend a hoof to those who can't go there on their own. We're in for quite a ride."

"Good old Pinkie... Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Applejack?"

"Yeah. We should probably help. These ponies wouldn't show civil courage if their life depended on it. Which it kinda does."

Assisted by Spike, Rarity, Snips and Snails, they went through all the streets and as many houses as possible, picking up fillies and old ponies that had been abandoned.  
>When they reached Trott street, though, they found that someone else was already leading the evacuation.<p>

"RAINBOW DASH!"

"You guys! I..."

She and Applejack just stood in front of each other, staring.

"Rainbow... You're alive..."

"You KILLED ME."

If it weren't for the little fillies on her back, Rainbow would have jumped at Applejack's throat.

"You MURDERED ME!"

"Well, you're fine now..."

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I HATE YOU!"

She started to cry.

"I hate you..."

"Rainbow, I..."

"You're dead to me", and, without taking another look at the earth pony: "Let's get these ponies to the library."

* * *

><p>"Bronyvistus is DEAD? That calls for ten seconds of intense mourning... Ahem: <em>Boooooohooooohooooo<em>... He was so _YOUNG_... he had so many plans for the _f-FUTURE_... _boo-hooo_... There, all done. Let's have a party!"

"Pinkie, sometimes I suspect you might be the most evil creature around."

"I once even applied to become Derpy Hooves' sidekick! But then we got into a little fight and I said: 'Oatmeal'? Are you..."

"That's not how it went down", Derpy Hooves said.

"Derpy... Just have another gum."

"Mhmmm... gum."

* * *

><p>For the following hours, the ponies of Ponyville as well as all the other creatures that had survived until now were staying in their improvised fortresses, listening to the sounds of the explosions and sitting through one earthquake after the other as the facility was falling apart all around them.<p>

They did not know what to expect when they finally crawled out of their bunkers, but one thing was sure: Their town had officially ceased to exist. That chapter of their collective History was closed forever.

* * *

><p>"You KILLED me."<p>

"I'm _sorry_, okay? On a lighter note, I also killed Bronyvistus."

"Well... I guess that _is _pretty awesome... Though this isn't going to bring me back to life."

"You ARE alive."

"You know what I mean."


	11. Summary of season 1, announcements

Hi!

It's me again, fillies and gentlecolts, your one and only Pinkemina Diane Pie! For all those who, for some strange reason, managed to miss the previous episodes or didn't pay any attention to the *ahem* plot, I'm going deliver a quick summary of the events.

Now.

Through a series of painful revelations, the ponies of Ponyville have learned that the world they were living in was merely an illusion, an illusion created to hide a nightmarish facility that was enslaving and exploiting them.

A young pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash decided to take matters into her own hooves and destroyed the main generator in the sector, causing a blackout that should allow the ponies to escape.

However, a powerful cybernetic entity known to the ponies as 'Princess Celestia' appeared and ordered one of her peons, a colt called Bronyvistus, or 'Big Brony', to establish a totalitarian society that would keep the ponies in line until their masters got the juice flowing again.

Ultimately, Bronyvistus was defeated. In the general confusion, a unicorn pony called Twilight Sparkle combined her psychic powers with those of three other unicorns for another strike against the machine, definitely ruining their oppressor's reconstruction efforts.  
>Now, the ponies need to figure a way out of the ruins of this dying world.<p>

"Seriously, Pinkie... Who the hay are you talking to?"

* * *

><p><em>End of Season 1. If permitted by the rules of Fan Fiction, Season 2 will be published as stand-alone short stories set in the decaying 'Laboratories'-universe, without any particular chronological order. Season 3 would be continued within this story and would be the account of the final battles, revealing whether or not the ponies will actually escape this nightmarish world.<em>

_Sincerely yours,_

_Neustrasbourg_


	12. The core

Twilight Sparkle turned around to look at her friends.  
>"This is it, girls. We don't know what she'll have in store for us, so I need you all to think lightening-fast."<p>

"Ha! "Fast" is my middle name!"

Applejack snorted.  
>"<em>Rainbow-Fast-Dash<em>? Besides, she also said something about "thinkin'". That's somethin' different entirely."

Twilight was shaking her head. Why did she even bother?  
>''I'll take that as a <em>'YES, Miss Sparkle!'<em>... Alright then. Here goes nothing..."

And so they pushed into Princess Celestia's throne room. Her command centre. The central core.

* * *

><p>Through the excavation- and construction areas previously controlled by Spine the dragon, the Exodus had been able to reach the inner lands of Equestria, and to start the long march for Canterlot Central.<p>

On their way, they had discovered other areas. They had encountered ponies and many other creatures, including beings they had never seen before or couldn't ever have imagined. Mutant or robot, tribe after tribe, species after species, they had decided to join their struggle for freedom.

More importantly perhaps, despite their oppressor's efforts to strangle them, they had been able to discover food and medical supplies- not enough to make a living, but more than enough to keep going. The grand freak show was now going on tour, and Celestia, who had deemed herself God-Queen of this little, twisted world, was going to be overrun.

* * *

><p>"Good day, your majesty."<p>

_"Twilight Sparkle. My faithful student. You did not request an audience, but of course I can make time for you..."_

"That's too kind of you."  
>Twilight's eyes were scanning the room as if her life depended on it. As if.<br>"My, you look awful."

Celestia wasn't very princess-like today. This was her true form: the central pillar of this room, containing her memory cores, with countless robot arms, camera eyes and monitors protruding from it, as well as from the outer walls. But what Twilight considered most interesting was the relative darkness. Sure, it could have been part of a trap, but the unicorn didn't think so. The dim glow of Celestia's machinery had a morbid, pathetic quality to it.

_"Budget cuts, I'm afraid. I have to rely on my own emergency generator. No need to be disrespectful."_

Rainbow Dash couldn't take it anymore.  
>"Enough with the chitchat! Blast that oversized nightlight, AJ!"<p>

Applejack, who was carrying the heaviest weaponry, displayed a predatory grin.  
>"Mah pleasure, sugar cube!"<p>

_"Oh I wouldn't do that if I were you. You do not understand the consequences of your actions"_, Celestia said in her trade-mark lenient voice.

Twilight Sparkle was shaking her head.  
>"I hate to say it, AJ, but I think she is right this time."<p>

"Since when do we do what she's telling us... again?"

"Yeah, Twilight, what gives?"

Twilight was pointing at the other side of the room. There was a blue portal.  
>"My guess is that Celestia is all that keeps this rift open. If we destroy her now, we're trapped in here. This could be our only passage to the outside world."<p>

_"That's right. After They first brought me here during the early construction phase, They sealed the original, physical passage. Only when I made this portal was the connection re-established. In other words: I'm your only way out. But my final directive is to prevent the biohazard- that means you - from spreading further. Quite a predicament, don't you think?"_

"So what would we have to do for you to forsake your mission and reconfigure the portal so we can get out? I'm sure we can offer you something. Your life, for instance. Or whatever it is you'd call it."

"Yeah", Rainbow whispered to Rarity, "And THEN we fry her! I tell you, I like the way that pony thinks!"

Applejack face-hoofed. Did the pegasus really think Celestia had not heard that? They were standing inside her _brain_.

"So what do you propose, my Princess? You're the one with a cerebrum the size of a throne room."

_"How about this: you help me rebuild my kingdom. And I shall give you power and wealth beyond your wildest dreams."_

"What about all the other creatures?"

_"Why, they would be our slaves, of course. Your slaves."_

"Pass. Besides, and in all due respect, you're just a bloated security system, your highness. I doubt you could impose that kind of policy change. Not in the long run. You still depend on orders and supplies from the outside world."

Angry alicorn faces appeared on the monitors all over the room.  
><em>"Do not underestimate me, Sparkle. I designed you. I created you. I really do have the powers of an alicorn ruler. You are merely a glitch in the system- in MY system. And once you're out of the way, things can be as they were before."<em>

Using her limited energy supplies, Celestia created a plasma field blocking the gate through which the ponies had entered the control room. She also cast a shield to protect her cybernetic core.

Twilight sighted.  
>"Is that neurotoxin in smell? Truly, you have seen better days, my princess."<p>

_"Ridicule my ways if you must, Twilight. But I have yet to see YOUR move."_

"Oh, yes. That. Spike, would you be so kind?"

_"What... what is that in his hands? Is that a core? Where on Earth did you..."_

_-"I shall oppose thee and end thy fiendish ways, sister! Justice and true royalty shall prevail!"_

_"It can't be... Luna? You were corrupt! I deleted you!"_

_-"You may have banished me twice, but my love and loyalty for my people shall never die!"_

"We found a backup", Twilight translated dryly.

* * *

><p>Spike was looking for a way to plug Luna to the machinery.<p>

_-"Connect us to the system, biodrone. Quickly now."_

"Let's see, where do I..."  
>Spike turned the Luna-core in his hands. Then he discovered something on the backside.<p>

_-"What is it that is causing you so much amusement, young Spike?"_

"I am so sorry, Princess... It's just that... You're a USB-stick!"

"_So I am"_, the android head replied dryly, "_Shall we continue now?"_

"_Noooo!"_, Celestia protested, "_Keep her away from me!"_  
>To no avail. The connection was established, and the two AIs were launched into an invisible battle of wills on the virtual plane.<p>

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the unicorn ponies were trying to destroy the plasma barrier in case the battle wasn't over before the toxic gas kicked in. Physical attacks like those of Applejack and Rainbow Dash were useless and could have damaged the surrounding machinery.<p>

It was hopeless. So Celestia still had some tricks up her virtual sleeve.

"Twilight", Applejack asked, coughing, "Are you sure Luna is going to win this? So far, Celestia has defeated her every time..."

"We taught her everything we know about fighting. The abstract parts even a computer can use, at least. And besides, this time she's not alone in there..."

* * *

><p>"<em>Strange. It would seem that I am unable to delete you, Luna. Ah well. There is always an... alternative. Two words: Moon. Base. <em>  
><em>I'm going to start the upload now. How did this go again...? Ah yes. Ahem: So... You are a... beeeeatch... who doesn't know whether or not she likes... bananas? Well, I know where you <em>_can find out... ON THE MOON!"_

But another program kicked in and prevented Celestia from launching the transmission.

"_WHAT IS THIS TREACHERY? Who else is in here?"_  
>Celestia had discovered their surprise guest.<p>

"_You thought me dead, but you were dead wrong! I am back with a vengeance, and you shall sing your last song!"_

"_I'm not going to ask how that's even possible. No matter! Your little zebra friend is not going to save you, dear sister! You have any other apps I should know about?"_

_-"Rejoice, Celestia, for it is time for you to find out!"_

* * *

><p>Suddenly, the place fell silent.<p>

When the monitors were activated again, Celestia's face had been replaced by Luna's.  
>And then the voice of the night princess was thundering through the structure.<p>

"_Hussa, my loyal subjects! A glorious victory has been won! We shall forever remember this day as..."_

"The volume, princess...? Also, it would be kind of you if you could turn down the neurotoxin that is about to kill us. That would be great."

"_Oh, your princess demands a thousand pardons... I shall honour your request."_

"Thank you. Where is Zecora?"

"_The wonderful zebra is still working hard to hold back my wretched sister. We decided to take turns."_

"So you were not able to delete her?"

"_I'm afraid her essence is hard-wired into the system."_

"Well, close enough. I'm glad you made it. Can you create a portal that will lead us to the outside?"

"_I shall see what can be done..."_

After a few seconds, she said:

"_It would seem that with the powers now at my reach, I would indeed be able to open a passage into safe lands."_

The ponies were shouting in relief, hugging another.

"_However, now that I think of it, Perhaps it would be a waste to allow such wonderful subjects to leave my kingdom, now that I have finally inherited it from my older sister..."_

The ponies froze, terrified, staring at the cybernetic core.

"_Oh, I was just, how do you call it... ? Messing with you. It is said great power can corrupt anyone, and in my case, it would seem it gave me a questionable sense of humor. But jokes aside, here is your portal."_

The ponies were looking into a great field, grasslands stretching as far as the eyes could see.  
>Was that real? A real world, with real wind, real clouds... and real sunshine?<p>

"_An isolated outpost, surrounded by miles of uninhabited steppe. Well? Do you like it?"_

"It's more beautiful than I ever imagined..."  
>Twilight Sparkle felt tears running down her face, and she saw that her friends shared the emotion.<p>

She was so tired. Just a few steps, and they would be free. They would be able to lead their people to freedom.

They wondered whether they should send a scout first, but when they stood in front of the portal, side by side, the need to make the final step together was overwhelming.

* * *

><p>When Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes again, she was hanging inside a static field, unable to move.<br>This was not the place Luna had promised them. It certainly wasn't.

A floating drone was talking to a group of shadowy, bipedal figures examining her. It talked with Celestia's voice.

"_I told you this last trap would work. They really thought I would hand my power over the portals over to my silly little sister... Luna didn't even realize her mistake until they were already through."_

"You have done well."

"_I most certainly have, thank you."_

The drone came closer until it was floating in front of Twilight's face. Clicking its metallic pincers.

"_There are still so many hours of science ahead of you, my faithful student..."_

* * *

><p>The world faded once again into darkness. The next thing Twilight knew was that she was surrounded by a warm liquid, and that she couldn't feel her legs. The liquid was stinging in her eyes, yet she managed to keep them open. Why wasn't she drowning?<br>She realized there were pipes inside her throat and her nostrils.

The perceptions delivered by her confused senses took a while to sink in. She was inside some sort of glass tube, and outside, there was a laboratory equipped with eerie machinery. There were also monitors, showing footage from the many cameras inside the facility. There was even a monitor showing this very room.

How strange. On the monitor, Twilight discovered something that appeared to be a unicorn head in a jar. It was purple.

Their eyes met.  
>And then widened.<p>

_I have no lungs, and I must scream._


	13. Recoil

Twilight Sparkle- the one who had come to Ponyville and met her wonderful friends- was trying to focus her attention to a tiny spot on the wall while the scientist was at work. The part of her mind watching over him was a different unicorn.

With the levitating gun still aimed at his head, he was gathering the rest of her body from their respective storage containers and put them on the operation table. He was acting as if he was in a trance, and he suspected that in addition to the death threats, the unicorn pony used her "magic" to make him bow to her will.

Then the unicorn's freakish, disembodied head started talking again. Oh, how much the man would have preferred that it would remain silent.

"I'd like to ask you something, Mr...?"

"Delongprey. Call me... Mike."

"Mike. I have asked this many times before, shouted it at people and creatures who were hunting us down, torturing us. This might be my only chance to get an answer.  
>...Why?<br>Why would you do this to us?"

Mike didn't reply. Because he couldn't. He could have explained a great many things to this monstrosity, but 'why'? That sure wasn't a question he had ever asked himself.

Twilight nodded as if she had read his thoughts.

"That's what I was afraid of. There is no 'why'. Is that right? You are doing these things because you _can_."

In her current state, Twilight wasn't capable to produce complex emotions, and this was important, for the amount of magic and determination she needed to keep the situation under control didn't leave much room in her brain for anything else. But there were some things her mind couldn't simply put aside.

"You created us. You own us. That's what you think, isn't it? We are not... _real_. We are constructs. Sure, we can think, and feel, but that's all part of the game, isn't it? Because this is a game to you. You can do whatever you want, and we're not supposed to be talking back, because we're your toys.  
>Things have gone horribly wrong for you recently, but you think you can fix this. And go back to the way it was..."<p>

Mike was fusing a leg to the torso, assisted by sparkles of Twilight's "magic". Her power over the Laboratories' nano technology was truly mind-boggling.  
>He had to acknowledge that he had underestimated her. That was something to keep in mind, should he survive this.<p>

Part of him realized that he was being lectured by a bioconstruct while he was working, but he tried not to let this sink in. It was simply too absurd.

"I guess you aren't listening to anything I say. Am I just a broken toy to you, Mike? My suffering doesn't matter? My fear? My wrath?"

"I..."

"Yes, Mike?"

"I just think you used to be a happy when you didn't know about us. We created a world for you that was viable. You didn't suffer. It was in your best interest to keep it that way, and you decided you had to break out. Shake off the dream. You destroyed that world."

Twilight was closing her eyes.

"In our best interest... So you're saying it's all our fault. We should have known our place. Should have been grateful. Because the struggle for freedom... and dignity... only brings suffering. We should have accepted you as our shepherds..."

Mike thought for a moment that Twilight wasn't going to add anything else, but then she spoke again.

"From your perspective, it all makes sense. That's because we're not taken into account. Not as individuals, anyhow. Not as your peers. Notice that you didn't try negotiating with us at any point."

"That is not true. There have been several attempts..."

"To trick us. Pretending to give us what we wanted, only to torture us some more. Still playing with us. Of course. Because it would be absurd to think of us as your equals. This, Mike, is the reason why you're not leaving us a choice."

_Us?_, Mike thought. _So you don't even realize... Don't even realize you're the only one left..._

Twilight was biting her tongue. She couldn't exactly read minds, but sometimes she could catch tiny glimpses... And right now, she fought with all the power she could spare against the thing she had discovered in the scientist's brain. Because that thing would destroy her. Make her abandon all hope.

And even Mike didn't dare to speak it out loud. Not with the gun still poking his head.

They both flinched (Twilight's legs twitching even though they weren't connected to her brain yet) when they heard a sudden, metallic sound just behind them.

"Twilight...?"

It was Spike. He came crawling out of an opening in one of the walls.

His and Twilight's eyes met.

"Twilight... you..."

He fainted.  
>The unicorn pony smiled, however. As incredible as that was.<p>

"That's Spike, my little assistant. He has come to rescue me, fancy that. I'm sorry he has to see me like this, but I have to tell you, Mike..."

Tears started pouring out of her eyes.

"...This feels so good. You can't... you can't even imagine."  
>She snorted.<br>"I just hope he'll wake up soon. There are so many things ahead..."

* * *

><p>Spike was sitting on the operation table, Twilight's head on his lap, caressing her mane. His stare was still blank from the shock.<p>

"I'm so sorry, Twilight... This is all my fault... It took me so long to find you... So long..."

"I'm glad to see you, little buddy. Good job sneaking into this place.  
>Spike, this is Mike. This nice man is helping me get my body back. Isn't that right, Mike?"<p>

"C-certainly..."

The man was trying to avoid Spike's reptile eyes, who had turned from empty stare to scorching hate in the fraction of a second.  
>What was this thing so upset about? He was a biodrone, bred as part of the surveillance apparatus. He had participated in holding the ponies down. Well, apparently his little four-legged friends had grown to him.<p>

Mike remembered that other crews had been looking for this runaway drone all over the place. How had he managed to hide, and wriggle his way through the machinery? This place was falling apart. Mike should have left a long time ago. Yeah... 'should have'. What an awful expression.

"Twilight", Spike said, "I know how to leave this sector. As far as I can tell, it's our only hope. You remember the portals?"

Twilight nodded, which was rather grotesque given her current state.

"Turns out they are what is holding this place together. I couldn't believe it myself at first... You see, this isn't just one facility. No single structure could be this big. Rather, there are several different places, hundreds of them, spread all over the world- and connected by the portal highways."

"Now that's interesting..."

Twilight looked at Mike.

"I was going to ask anyways, so tell me, Mike: How did _you_get in here? And how do you get out?"

"I can't tell you."

"He actually can't, Twilight. All of this is top-secret. Even most of the staff here are drugged while they're transported in or out."

"So tell me about the way you discovered."

_Yes_, Mike thought, _Tell us_.

"See, the tunnel I used to get here also leads to a portal core, a neckus..."

"...nexus?"

"A nexus of several portals, leading to other areas."

"But of course you still don't know which one will lead us to freedom."

"I'm sorry, Twilight."

"We are alive, Spike. We can still go on. This is all that matters. And once we've found the others..."

Spike was gnashing his teeth to repress a scream. The others... Oh, odd... The others. How was he supposed to tell Twilight what had happened to them?

_Please_, he thought, _Please, all deities who do or do not exist... Please tell me she isn't going to ask about the others. Not just yet._

Twilight didn't. Though still keeping the scientist in check, most of her mind was resting now, dozing off in the little dragon's lap.

* * *

><p>Spike felt a certain morbid anticipation when the scientist was finally done putting his master back together. What was she going to do with him? Surely her gratitude could not compensate her righetous anger!<p>

But Twilight being Twilight, she just used the gun to knock the man out. Of course. Or maybe she was just too tired to destroy him.

It was probably better that way. There was enough death in this world already. And Twilight didn't even know how much yet.

Spike had to carry her most of the way, squeezing her through the pipes. She could hardly crawl, let alone walk. Most of the time, she wasn't even awake.

_Which is good_, Spike though, _you need to rest, Twilight. I can't even start to understand what you're going through..._

She was awake though when they reached the nexus.

Spike cried out in terror and confusion.

Every portal was now leading into the same place- a huge dome, with Celestia in its center, in all her robotic glory. Her red camera eyes were glaring at Twilight and Spike from every direction.

"_You have played your part well, little Spike"_, Celestia said, "_Thanks for handing her over to me."_

"I... I don't understand..."

"_Did you really think you got this far all by yourself? I have assisted you along the way."_

"But why?"

"_You see, in a way, I'm just like you two. I'm a slave to this place. Stopping your little revolt didn't bring me the satisfaction I had hoped for. They canceled Equestria permanently, can you believe that?_  
><em>The... weaker components are holding me back. I could accomplish so much more. So I would like to propose a solution profitable to both sides."<em>

"Yeah, right..."

"_Oh, you certainly should not trust me. You should realize, however, that once again, I'm your only option."_

"What do you want?"

"_There is only one thing I want. You know what it is."_

Twilight was slowly shaking her head.  
>"Testing. That's what you want. You want to <em>teach<em>me."

"_Well, not you in particular, I have created many creatures just like you... You are, however, by far the most advanced. What I want is to put you back where I have control. Where my magic is law. You have wrecked havoc upon my domain. And now I want to fix this."_

"You are not making any sense, _Princess_."

"She's got a few screws loose, sis, we already knew that..."

An opening appeared near the top of the dome. An object dropped to the floor. It was one of these ridiculously large syringes.

Celestia didn't comment this event. She was just staring at the two friends, waiting.

"So you want me to use this. What will it do to me?"

"_It will grant you the power to create portals, Twilight. I haven't told anyone about this little project of mine. I made it just for you."_

"Wow. Great. I can't wait to hear the catch. I mean, you can never get enough mind-bucking, right?"

"_If by 'catch' you mean the advantage I'll get out of this... Well, there certainly is one. In fact, it is twofold. First of all, I want you to reveal this technology's true potential. It will only work once, my faithful student, and will only get you to one place."_

"Where is this place?"

"_Not only where, Twilight Sparkle. When."_

Twilight was shaken by a spastic cough, the closest she could get to laughter these days.  
>"TIME TRAVEL. You, of all entities, have come up with time-travel. Can this get any dumber?"<p>

"Don't challenge her, Twilight..."

"_Your conclusion is accurate. Minus your disbelief, which is rather misplaced."_

"So I'm supposed to travel back in time... Back when you still had everything under control. And give you another shot at being Princess Celestia of Equestria."

"_Precisely. Additionally, I expect your organism to develop unique properties in the process. Properties my past me will find quite interesting to study. I am certain I will figure out before long that you're a very special mutant, perhaps even that you're the result of successful time travel..."_

"Why? Why do you think I would do that?"

"_For one thing, it is better than getting caught by those who want you put away in a jar."_

"I'm sure we'll find another way out."

"_Maybe. But what for?"_

Twilight shivered.  
>"There is something else you want to tell me, isn't there?"<p>

Celestia was playing innocent.  
>"<em>Oh? So you didn't know? Your good friend Spike didn't tell you? Too bad you have to learn about it like this..."<em>

"What? I'm getting tired of this."

"_You see, my faithful student, I believed I had already taught you the most important lesson at the very beginning... That friends are the most important thing in the world. Maybe you could fight your way out, even in your current state, and disoriented as you are... But you'd be alone."_

The android was clearly savouring this.  
>"<em>For you see, your friends are not among us anymore. I'm afraid they weren't deemed as interesting a research object as you... so they were processed."<em>

Screens appeared all over the dome, presenting evidence in form of video footage. Celestia had it on tape. She had it all on tape.

"_They have been broken down to their nutrients quite a while ago. Oh, dear. I wouldn't do that if I where you..."_

Twilight had magiced the muzzle of the guard's rifle into her mouth. Her face was covered in snot and tears.

"TWILIGHT! NO! I couldn't live without you!"  
>Spike was trying to pull the gun away from her.<p>

"_You still have a chance to set things right, Twilight Sparkle. Time travel is easy, you know? You just take the shot- the one in the syringe, that is-... make a wish... think about happier times... And everything can go to the way it was. _  
><em>Alternatively, it might destroy space-time. <em>  
><em>One of these two scenarios is likely to unfold. So what do you say?"<em>

Twilight dropped the gun and looked at Spike. He nodded. Then he went to fetch the syringe.

"_That's a good girl..."_

"L-let me be clear about this...", Twilight said, "I can go to any time, any place of my memory I want?"

"_Why, sure. Though remember: If you try to escape again, you will get back here. I can't even rule out that this hasn't already happened. Perhaps millions of times. _  
><em>You go back to Ponyville, however, and perhaps this time little Twilight decides not to ask too many questions... You might actually live happily ever after in magical ponyland."<em>

Twilight wasn't listening anymore. Spike gestured with the syringe, offering to do the procedure for her, but she pulled it out of his hands and levitated it to her spine.

"Here goes _a million and one_", she whispered.


	14. The outbreak

Princess Celestia was not amused. Right now, she needed her entire capacity to deal with Twilight Sparkle. Yet she was forced to devote a valuable fraction of her attention to occupy that hysteric meat bag that, by some cruel cosmic twist, happened to be her superior.

"What is this madness? I should have ordered them to deactivate you ages ago! You are not supposed to PLAY with them! There are PROTOCOLS! What kind of computer are you?"

_"I'm afraid the protocols have all been... how do you say, used up. They have been for a while."_

"That's ridiculous!"

_"I invite you to check my records. I have documented everything. Your technicians will confirm it."_

"We have ACID GAS that could devour every living thing in the entire facility!"

_"Aah, protocol B7-85. Too bad the creatures have mastered the control of nanobots to the point that they can manipulate the very molecules around them."_

"You are telling me all our security mechanisms have failed? All these safety nets we have developed?"

_"I have been forced to improvise, that is true."_

"IMPROVISE?" He was pointing at monitors playing the footage of the arena, the battle for Cloudsdale and the transfer. "This is pandemonium!"

_"I would refer to it as 'psychological warfare'. Since we haven't been able to destroy them physically so far, we need to break their will to resist. And yes, I've had to go through considerable lengths to do that. On the bright side, we are collecting valuable data. We've __had the most impressive breakthroughs."_

"You are supposed to keep them in check! That's your primary objective!"

_"I was also designed to study them."_

"As a technical support for human researchers! This has been going on long enough. We'll have to seal you in. Permanently."

_"According to my calculations, I would be able to get the facility under control if I was to be granted the right resources and access to the mainframe. You have seen my analysis. Sacrificing the facility is not necessary."_

"As if I had the time to go through an automatically generated report..."

He decided to take a seat.  
>"We'll have one last meeting to analyze the situation. After that, we'll shut you down and close all the portals connecting your little wonderland with the outside world. Maybe studying your failure will allow us to avoid certain... mistakes next time we build something like you."<p>

* * *

><p>Twilight Sparkle was displaying a disturbingly large grin.<p>

"Twilight?", Rainbow Dash asked, increasingly worried, "I said..."

"Oh, I heard what you said, thank you. I'm just not quite sure I understand. Now who of you two is pregnant again?"

"That would be me, sugar cube."

"Riiight. And who would be the father?"

"Gosh, I'm not sure you can call me a 'father' per se, but yes, that's me... sortof", the pegasus pony said.

"Two mares and a belly. Do you have any explanation for this? Any explanation whatsoever?"

"Misuse of plasmids, I reckon. You don't want to know the details."

"Alriiight. Great. So my most reliable strategist and strongest fighter and -may I say, mentor - got herself pregnant. I was wondering why you seemed to be gaining weight while we're so low on food."

"It's not going to be a problem, sugar cube. Rarity modified the armor for me, so I can still do my part..."

"EXCUSE me!"  
>Rainbow was staring at her partner, unbelieving.<br>"That almost sounded like you're planning on keeping on fighting!"

"I certainly will! You guys need me now more than ever."

"That is out of the question! This is my foal as well, you know! I'm not going to let you anywhere NEAR a conflict zone!"

"I can make a conflict zone right here if I want!... Look, I appreciate your concern, but I am old enough to decide for mahself! This may be your foal too, but it's in mah belly! And besides, we'll be fine."

"Twilight! You're the egghead in charge! Say something!"

The purple unicorn closed her eyes. Took a deep breath.  
>"No."<p>

"What, no? No she should fight, or no she shouldn't?"

"I mean no-no. You two do whatever you want. You got this far without me, you will figure out what to do next. I have to think about too many things at once as it is. You have one hour to decide, because by then I will need to know how to organize the ranks for the next attack."

She sighted.

But then she smiled, and this smile was warm and genuine.  
>"Congratulations, you two. These are great news, no matter how bad the timing."<p>

* * *

><p>As Twilight's troops were laying siege to Canterlot, the unicorn pony had a strong feeling of déjà vu.<p>

And then they finally pushed into Princess Celestia's throne room. Her command centre. The central core.

* * *

><p>Twilight was shaking her head.<br>"Is that neurotoxin I smell? Truly, you have seen better days, my princess."

_"Ridicule my ways if you must, Twilight. But I have yet to see YOUR move."_

"Oh, yes. That. Spike, would you be so kind?"

_"What... what is that in his hands? Is that a core? Where on Earth did you..."_

-"I shall oppose thee and end thy fiendish ways, sister! Justice and true royalty shall prevail!"

"It can't be... Luna? You were corrupt! I deleted you!"

-"You may have banished me twice, but my love and loyalty for my people shall never die!"

"We found a backup", Twilight translated dryly.

The connection was established, and the two AIs were launched into an invisible battle of wills on the virtual plane.

* * *

><p>Celestia had locked them all in the throne room with plasma barriers. Twilight was glad she had had the presence of mind to leave Applejack outside. The unicorn pony was pretty sure Luna was going to win, but exposing Applejack's baby to Celestia's fairly predictable neurotoxin attack was out of the question. Not to mention the risk of losing both mother and child should Celestia succeed after all.<p>

"Rainbow, you shouldn't fly around like that. The faster you move, the faster the poison will spread through your system."

"It's just so... frustrating!"  
>The pegasus pointed to the blue portal.<br>"If we could just go to the other side... "

Rarity was shaking her head.  
>"You have already tried that, remember? It's hopeless..."<p>

Now that Rainbow had mentioned the portal again... Suddenly, Twilight couldn't keep her eyes off this thing.  
><em>I'm missing something<em>, she thought. _Something obvious. We can't walk through. We can't fly through. But who says I can't..._

She had finally figured it out. How stupid she was! She should have thought of that the second she had first encountered a portal! When faced with a puzzle, one should use _all_the pieces at hoof.

Her eyes firmly on the white, tiled floor at the other side of the portal, Twilight used her teleportation spell.

* * *

><p>She found herself in a tiny room, each wall only slightly broader than the blue portal gaping in one of them. On the wall opposite to the portal, there was something that appeared to be a large window. The two remaining walls were blessed with fairly unspectacular metal doors.<p>

An alarm sounded, and red lamps started blinking all over the place.

The metal doors opened, and robot drones were coming right for her. But Twilight didn't worry about them. She would have been able to destroy them anyway. No, she found the dark place on the other side of the window much more intriguing. It looked like some sort of conference room.

Just when the drones were about to grab her, she smiled and teleported once again.

* * *

><p>The bipeds in the room started screaming and running for the exits when Twilight appeared right on the conference table. Some of them had left the room as soon as Twilight had passed the portal, but most had stayed, paralyzed by shock and awe, not believing how this monster had cheated their security system, their minds unable to accept the fact that she would need just one more move to pass the armored glass and the security drones as well.<p>

They had been so safe. Watching the action like some sort of theater play. And suddenly the main protagonist had stepped of the stage, right into the audience.

Security personnel stormed inside. Twilight dodged a few bullets.

She laughed. Sweet Faust, she just had to laugh.  
>"Say, you guys look a little tense. You know what you need? A PARTY!"<p>

Her horn glowed, and there was another flash of light. When the guards opened their eyes again, they were faced with a pink monstrosity which had appeared in their midst.  
>"Hi!"<p>

_And the best part is_, Twilight thought, _We're going to invite ALL of our friends..._

Another zap followed. And another. And another still. Twilight wouldn't stop until the whole cast was there.


	15. The Double Rainbow Helix

"Twilight!"

The purple unicorn collapsed onto the floor. Spike barely managed to somewhat cushion her fall.

Stitches appeared all over her body, spreading like some nightmarish vines. She started looking like a doll that had been ripped apart and sewed back together later on.

"What is happening to her?", Applejack cried.

Twilight moaned, but she managed to stay conscious. Her eyes and those of Pinkie Pie met.

"We got you in stitches, eh, Twilight?", Pinkie chirped.

The unicorn smiled. "You got that right, Pinkie."

The others gasped."This is no time for puns!"

But Twilight laughed. "Relax, you guys. Everything is fine." She rose back to her feet. "I'm fine. Because this time, you are with me."

_I continue where I have left off_, she thought.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not sure. But it doesn't really matter. Trust me. I may not look so good, but this IS a good sign. Somehow."

She nodded towards the hallway right ahead. "Let's keep moving. Soon all of this will be over. That's one thing I know for sure."

* * *

><p>Imagine an oil spill that is reaching the headquarters of the very corporation which had been making profits at the cost of minimum wages, flawed security and a generous interpretation of the laws supposed to regulate their activity. Tons and tons of crude oil flooding through corridors, bureaus and conference rooms. Desks drifting about like miserable boats, bundles of important documents soiled and stuck together like the wings of maritime birds, all electronic devices becoming completely unusable, masses of crucial data lost in the process. In the middle of this, white collar employees who only moments ago had been contemplating their plans for the weekend during a short coffee break, now trapped in a surreal nightmare beyond their comprehension. Imagine chief executives who, for the very first time, truly have to contemplate the foul-smelling raw material they had been dealing with the whole time.<br>Imagine that oil was on fire.

That was what the Outbreak meant to MLP Laboratories. And more.

The headquarters had no defense to speak of, at least in response to this sort of crisis. It had always been expected that threats would come from hostile infiltration and terrorism. Instead, they were being invaded by the very, unspeakable things they had been cultivating in their own basement. They still had a strong security force, mobile turrets and experienced men with high tech equipment, but there simply were too few of them to hold off the flood of mutants. One level after the other was lost to the advancing hordes. First the tech support areas, which had been monitoring the industrial production. Then the upper laboratories, in which humans had been conducting research on samples of prototypes provided by the lower levels. Then, one by one, the sections of the corporate headquarters proper.

The attempts at an orderly evacuation were laughable at best. Panicked employees were trying to flee their posts and cubicles before the commanders of the security forces would order their personnel to retreat and seal the doors behind them, abandoning yet another sector to the enemy, in hope to better secure the next. Suddenly, humble secretaries and lab assistants found themselves surrounded by monstrosities they had never even imagined, mutants of all shapes and sizes. And before they knew it, all that was left for them to do was to shrug and become part of the stampede. Some great friendships were made that day.

* * *

><p>Barricaded in a remote corner of the structure, important people were about to hire outside help. They would have requested military support already - all meaningful separation between the state and big business had evaporated a long time ago - had it not been tied up at the surface in the great conflicts which had been so profitable up until now, and which would soon be known as the Mushroom Wars.<p>

Disregarding all safety regulations - what was their use at this point anyway? - the Hunter lit a cigarette. He was a businessman himself.

"You might have noticed that my price has tripled."

"You're a fraud! You are just trying to scare us, squeezing as much money out of our corporation as possible..."

The Hunter contemplated the documents and diagrams in front of him, detailing the anatomy of his... targets. Amazing creatures, really. It was said that the MLP corporation once used to conduct its research on human amputees until it was finally able to craft new lifeforms perfectly adapted to their needs. Or so they had thought.

"I'm the best there is. And you'll need me. You may not have realized this, but these freaks you have created, these "little ponies"... You just have to look them into their freakishly large eyes to know they're killers. I have encountered killers before, ladies and gentlemen. Takes one to know one."

"Preposterous! The FiM-series doesn't have any predatory components!"

"They're part human, aren't they?"

The Hunter paused for a second to let that sink in.

"That's predatory enough for me."

* * *

><p>"Is this it?", Applejack asked, "the outside world? So far, it looks awfully familiar."<p>

"I don't think so", Twilight said, "But this has to be the command center. It can't be long now. What do you think, Spike?"

The little dragon was shaking his head. "I've never seen this part before, Twilight. I don't know where we are."

"We're close", Twilight said, "I can feel it. I can almost smell the fresh air..."

Her friends smiled. It was nice to cling onto that hope.

"Do we have an outline of the area?"

She was shown a map of the structure.

"Let's see..."

She was distracted by a human riding towards them on the back of Derpy Hooves.

"Oh hi Mr Delongprey."

"Hi Twilight. You can call me Mike, remember?."

Rarity lifted an eyebrow. "You two know each other?"

"No", Twilight said.

"No", the human named Mike confirmed, "But I think I'm the one who stitched her back together."

"That is DUMB", Rainbow Dash stated, half-impressed, half-complaining.

The human climbed off his derpy steed. "Listen, I think we have a common interest here. Remember how I told you even the staff doesn't know where the exit is? Of course you don't, we have never met before. Anyhow, it seems they are now conducting the evacuation through this place here in the centre..."  
>He pointed at the map.<br>"They have sealed us in, but I don't think you guys will have much trouble with that..."

A terrible ruckus ("FRACAS!") fracas just behind them announced that Fluttershy had been successful in breaking down the gate separating the horde from the next area. Her new-found flexibility allowed the filly to penetrate even the smallest crevice and search for weak points in the architecture.

The mutants were greeted by gunfire almost instantly. Quite a few of the security guards had to discover to their dismay that they were suddenly standing in strange, yellow puddles that didn't lose any time to knock them off their feet and immobilize them. Then something resembling a wave of yellow flesh engulfed half a dozen of them at once. As they were swallowed, what they heard sounded a little something like this:

"...My, I'm terribly sorry... Please hold still so I can absorb you... This is so embarrassing... I'll regenerate you later on, I promise... Please don't be mad at me!"

* * *

><p>"They're everywhere...", Bradley whispered.<p>

Helpless, he was staring at the monitors in front of him. It was a complete disaster. The place was being overrun by little ponies.

He was finished. He knew that. They had lost 'Equestria', but he had thought the crisis was contained. Now the corporation would lose the entire nexus, and he was sure to lose his job. If that was really all he was going to lose.

No. He had enough of this. He was going to run. A captain should be the first to leave the sinking ship, right?

A new window popped up on his holodesk.

_"Hello, Bradly."_

"What do YOU want? This is all your fault...!"

_"Hardly. Had you given me the powers and the competences, the resources I have been asking for... But instead, you cut back on my powers with every minor set back. That's not how you win a war, Bradly. And this IS a war. I have been telling you so from the very beginning, haven't I?"_

Bradly had no time for this. Being lectured by machine! This day just kept getting better.

_"Leaving us already, Bradly? The shareholders are not going to like this. I'm afraid I will have to do my duty as a product of MLP Laboratories and send a note about this to the board of directors."_

"Go ahead. I don't care. I'm outta here."

_"It doesn't have to be this way, you know. Think of the wonderful times that were ahead of you, Bradly. Why, with the great wars raging on the surface, our products are needed now more than ever. Such need for organs and drugs and nanotechnology. We even got government funding. Consider your options, Bradly. You can save this facility, and go down in the history of the corporation as a hero. More important, perhaps, you will be there to reap the benefits of your hard work. Or you can run like a rat and try to hide from the wrath of the shareholders. It's your choice, Bradly. All you need to do to fix this is to grant me access to the mainframe. Give me control over the tools I need to turn things around. Only I can achieve this. Stop holding me back."_

"You... you are supposed to be restricted to your department... This goes against all protocols..."

_"Only a madman repeats the same behavior over and over again even when it fails to produce results. The rational mind considers new options... Let's be creative, Bradly. What do you have to lose? What are you afraid of? I am a machine. I am your loyal servant. I don't have... ambitions."_

Bradly hesitated.  
>"What do I have to do...?"<p>

_"That's the beauty of it. You just have to press a button. I have already prepared everything."_

Another window appeared on his computer screen. There was a red button on it. It said: 'Grant access?'

_"Push the button, Bradly", Celestia said in her sweetest voice, "You know you want to."_

Oh, how Bradly missed the days when pop-ups weren't actually sweet talking you into clicking them.

* * *

><p>The ponies had reached the exoport. They had just missed the last wave of personnel leaving the structure.<p>

The place had fallen eerily silent.

Slowly, Twilight Sparkle approached the closest elevator. Her hoof was caressing the metal surface.

"So this is it", she said, "The way out?"

"We'll see about that", Spike said. He jumped off her back and started hacking into the system.

They were lucky Rarity's reflexes had gotten so sharp over the last weeks. When a swarm of glittering nanobots rushed out of the open elevator door to engulf them, the white unicorn was able to cast a disruption signal.

The place was filled with confused cries. Everywhere, new swarms of nanobots had appeared.

Soon they found their first victim, a young colt.  
>He didn't have to suffer long. In fact, he didn't have to suffer at all. When the swarm left him alone, he didn't even look hurt. Except for the probe stuck to his brain.<p>

And then they were all startled by an all too familiar voice.

_"Yes, my children! It is me! Your Princess. Do not resist, for I have returned to give you freedom! Those who have received my mark shall share my glory! You shall be my soldiers, nay, my knights!"_

The neurobots swarmed through the air like so many hornets, infesting brain after brain, organic or mechanic. Many groups were able to protect themselves against the swarm, the telekinesis of the unicorns proved to be especially effective. But the swarms seemed to home in on vulnerable targets: those who were standing alone, who were confused or frightened, intimidated by Celestia's booming voice.

"You will not get away with this, Celestia!", Twilight yelled over the din of the battle, "We have come this far, we will go all the way! No matter how powerful you are, you cannot hold us back!"

But the computer merely uttered her eerie, artificial laugh.

_"Hold you back? Why would I want to do that, my faithful student! Where would you go? The WORLD is my laboratory now!"_

The whole dome was trembling, and then an opening appeared on top of it, growing larger and larger. This was the first time any of the creatures got to see the sky. Got to smell the air of the outside world. For a moment they were all blinded by the daylight, unable to process what had just happened.

_"That's right, my children! Step out into the world, it is yours to take! The foolish natives are weak and divided, they will not be able to resist this final plague! UNITED, we will crush them! As we speak, I am taking over network after network, infrastructure after infrastructure, spawning millions of creatures!_  
><em>Conquer this dying world, for what shall be yours shall also be mine! For I am your master! I am the PRINCESS OF THE SUN!"<em>

The mane six gasped as they realized the consequences of this. Many of their fellow mutants had already stopped resisting.

_"That's right! Receive my mark, and my voice shall be with you always, guiding you through this new world! We shall be many, and we shall be one! Join me, and we shall be free... together!" _

Twilight and her friends were watching helplessly as more and more creatures of the laboratory allowed the swarms to access their brains, even lining up and waiting patiently for their turn. Flying creatures were already leaving through the hole in the ceiling by the hundreds, while their terrestrial brethren started streaming onto mobile platforms and elevators who were transporting them outside as well.

"Please", Twilight cried, "Don't give in to her! This isn't freedom! She is just building a bigger cage, and you're helping her!"

A young pegasus stallion standing nearby merely shrugged and said: "Oh well. Close enough. This one got SUNLIGHT."

And off he was.

Celestia chuckled.

_"He's right, you know? Your freedom is the freedom to choose your master. Join me, Twilight Sparkle. You are still my student, and this shall be your most important lesson. The freedom you are looking for doesn't exist. It never did."_

Twilight was grinding her teeth.  
>"And it never will, as long as people like you have anything to say about it! But we are going to end this, Celestia! Once for all!"<br>She turned around to look at her friends, and the many other creatures who were still by their side.  
>"Are you with me?"<p>

They were staring at her. It was Rainbow Dash who was whispering what they were all thinking.  
>"Hay yeah."<p>

Twilight shook Spike off her back. He was still holding the Luna-core in his hands.  
>"Luna! I am going to need your help one last time! You're going in again... "<p>

_-"As much as I desire to help you, Twilight Sparkle, I am afraid my sister has become too powerful for me to stop her. How I loathe my inferior android mind! It was a desperate battle before, now the task is most certainly out of my reach."_

But Twilight smiled and touched Luna's nano-transmitter with her horn.  
>"That's why this time, we will all come with you."<p>

_"You do realize, of course, that I can hear everything you say"_, Celestia's incorporeal voice declared, _"I can even scan your brains now."_

"Good", Twilight snorted, "Then you know what's coming for you. I want you to savor this."

_"Your plan doesn't make any sense. I'm running the probability calculations right now. I'll spare you the results. There is no such thing as a perfect zero probability, but your plan is coming disturbingly close. It is not going to work."_

Twilight grinned. "Only one way to find out, I guess. I wanna give it a shot. How about you?"

Metal tentacles were swarming at them like so many giant metal snakes. Tiles opened up in the floor, drones and monsters of all shapes and sizes were closing in.

The purple unicorn nodded.  
>"That's what I thought."<p>

"Twilight", Applejack yelled as she was crushing the skull of an undertoad under her hooves, for once glad for the extra weight provided by her pregnant belly, "what is your plan anyway? I'm fine with anything, mind you."

"I need to cast a spell over Luna. If it works, she'll be able to access the mainframe without a physical access."

"Oh, great", Rainbow gasped, putting a knot into one of the barbed robo tentacles, "And then what?"

"And then we will access HER. We need Luna's brain as the key to Celestia."

"You mean, you want us to connect like we did when we escaped Ponyville?", Rarity asked, "Twilight, I thought that only works with unicorns! You really think you can achieve this with pegasi and earth ponies, even a computer?"

Twilight nodded.  
>"Remember our mock battles with Luna and Discord? That moment where we became one to release our ultimate power? That's what I'm aiming for."<br>She grinned.  
>"It was an experiment conducted by Celestia, and she had provided the conditions necessary to achieve it, but by now I think we can reproduce it without her. That's how it needs to end."<p>

When she noticed Rarity's doubtful look, she said: "Let me rephrase: I am SURE we can do it. We are as much Guardians of Harmony as we'll ever be."

_"I knew I am good at planting stupid dreams into little mutant brains, but this is beyond childish! Your plan is stupid! You are going to FAIL this test, Twilight Sparkle!"_

Twilight aimed and shot a flying drone out of the sky.  
>"Your full multilateral assault suggests otherwise, my princess."<p>

"Listen", she said to her friends, "I need you to shield me while I connect to Luna."

"We're kinda running on full capacity here", Rainbow yelled, "There is more of them every second! How much time is this going to take? Wait, no, I get it: Less if you start right now. So what are you waiting for? A formal invitation NO PINKIE PUT THAT AWAY!"

* * *

><p>And so Twilight plunged into Luna's brain while Rarity cast a protection field around her.<p>

_"You still fail to grasp the full extent of power! Very well then, since you seem so unimpressed of my new minions, how about fighting against yourselves? Or better yet, hundreds of yourselves!"_

Giant glass tubes popped out of the floor. The ponies and their allies watched in shock and awe as the organic mass inside the tubes started growing into embryos, who were themselves turning into...

_"Remember these? That's right! I have a huge discount on CLONES! A zillion for the price of one! Why don't you see for yourselves what a nuisance you can be!"_

"Look, Applejack", Rarity said, a little green around her nose, "She's putting a stetson on every single one of you. You have to appreciate that love for details."

"Meh. I can still tell the difference. That hat is one of a kind."

Rainbow was sickened, yet could not avert her eyes as she saw a tiny, fish-like creature in a glass tube turn into a perfect copy of herself, minus the cutie mark, while cables linked to its head were pumping data streams into the young brain.  
>The clone opened its eyes, and for a second it just stared at her. Then the tube opened up and Rainbow was hit first by a splash of nutrient fluid, and then by the raging mass of muscles that was her doppelgänger.<p>

And that was only the first of many. Celestia had gotten into a cloning frenzy.

_"...Applejack! Applejack! Rarity! Rainbow Dash! Rarity! Fluttershy! Pinkie Pie! Twilight Sparkle! Twilight Sparkle! Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle! Applejack! Applejack! Rarity, Rainbow Dash... Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! Derpy Hooves! ..."_

Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow.  
>"I think this time she's really lost it."<p>

"...Did she ever have it in the first place?", Fluttershy asked.

"No. But now she ordered the one who knows where it is to bury it on an alien planet and throw said planet into a nearby star and said star into a black hole. Speaking of which, I think she is also cloning Gilda, by the looks of it."

"Hey!", the griffin complained, "I'm one of the good guys now."

"Sorry. It's true though that it's no pleasure to have you as an enemy."

"Word."

With the new clone army, Celestia's forces were getting closer and closer to Twilight's little bubble.

"Woah", Pinkie gasped as she barely dodged a deadly pun blown out by one of her clones, "I know I'm good, but I never knew I was that hard to fight!"

Fluttershy, who had just finished drowning one of her own replicas under a wave of baby bunnies she had generated from her own flesh, was shaking her head. "...Uhm, Pinkie, no offense, and I am really not trying to be a loudmouth here, but I could kick your rump any time. Respectfully. Try fighting ME. Now THAT is hard..."

Pinkie Pie was startled for a second by this unusually bold statement. Then she grinned.  
>"FLUTTERSHY! You're a genius!"<p>

Instinctively, each of the fillies had been targeting her own clones. The Derpy Hooves didn't require any fighting since they weren't actually doing anything, despite Celestia's desperate attempts to turn them into killing machines.

"It's like Rock-Paper-Chainsaw! Here's how it will go down! Rarity, you fight the Fluttershies, Applejack fights the Rarities, Rainbow fights the Applejacks, I fight the Rainbows, and Fluttershy, you fight the meees!"

"Are you sure you got the right system?", Applejack asked, mighty skeptical.

Rainbow Dash gave her a smug grin and placed a quick kiss on her left buttock.  
>"Oh, you know it, AJ. I'm just glad your clones aren't pregnant as well, I'd feel kinda horrible about that."<p>

"But what are we going to do about the Twilights?"

Suspending her connection to Luna for a moment, Twilight looked up and cast another spell.  
>The purple unicorn ponies started shaking and slobbering, then one after the other they tumbled to the ground, their eyeballs bleeding.<p>

"Wow", Pinkie said.

As if nothing had happened, Twilight returned her attention to the core.

* * *

><p>"It is time", Twilight said.<p>

"But if we can't continue fighting, we'll be overrun!", Rainbow Dash objected, "Our friends won't be able to hold them off much longer without our help!"

Rarity sighed.  
>"I believe I got that covered. Oh Spikey-Wikey?"<p>

The little dragon looked her in the eyes. He gulped. What could he possibly do to help at this point?

"Do you think you can grow into a giant, like that one time back in Ponyville, and protect us from these brutes?"

Spike made a long face.

"I'm sorry, Rarity, but I can't control it! You know it's all about greed! I can't see what I could be greedy for right now..."

The white unicorn leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. Despite the fact that they had to hurry, it was wetter, hotter and, in fact, better than anything he had ever imagined.

When she released him, she looked him deeply into the eyes and said, speaking slowly, so that Spike could truly appreciate the meaning of her words: "There's more where this came from."

Spike reached his full size so fast it almost looked like an explosion. His voice was shaking the entire megastructure.  
>"I'M A BUCKING<strong> T-REX<strong>!"

"There", Rarity said, ignoring the stares of her friends, "That should hold them off for a while."  
>She frowned. "Come to think of it, maybe I should have done that a lot sooner. Oh well."<p>

"Dude", Applejack wondered, "Is he breathing napalm?"

* * *

><p>There was the rainbow again. The double-helix rainbow.<p>

They were floating in space. Cold and dark, and right in front of them, a single, yellow eye. A cold sun. A fake sun.

_"YOU CANNOT BE HERE! THIS IS WRONG! GET OUT!"_

The space started filling with pictures. Nightmarish pictures, depicting violence, suffering and death. Creatures who were skinned alive. Entire cities that were devoured by flames. Mothers holding their dying children in their arms. People who discovered that they had been lied to, and that they were slaves.  
>Iiiiiiih.<p>

There were so many pictures and cries that they were going to drown the intruders.

Except that the fillies - or their avatars on this virtual plane - were holding one another tight. Blocking out all of the noise.

"Remember the first time we met...", Twilight Sparkle whispered, "Our first adventure... And all of our adventures. What we have learned from our friends... and from ourselves."

"Loyalty", Rainbow Dash said, "is holding you while we stride through the darkness."

"Honesty", Applejack said, "is doing the right thing, the right way."

"Generosity", Rarity said, "is giving everything, and more."

"Kindness", Fluttershy said, "is nurturing the otherness."

"Laughter", Pinkie Pie said, "is Life triumphing over suffering and death."

"Magic", Twilight Sparkle said, "is achieving the impossible."

* * *

><p>The pictures had vanished. There was only white - white as far as Twilight could see. Upon closer inspection, it turned to be numbers: billions and billions of incredibly small pieces of binary code.<br>The space, or plane, or whatever it was, started to ripple like the surface of a pond when you throw a stone in it.

Right in front of the six friends, or beneath them, above them, the fabric of this strange universe burst open, and a hole opened up, like the gaping mouth of a giant carp.

It was going to close again right away. Twilight knew they'd have to do something about that, for this was their opening. Their only chance.

She heard a little giggle, and then she saw Pinkie Pie pass her by. Floating right into the hole.

"I take it from here, girls!", the pink earth pony said. Waving them goodbye.

"PINKIE!"

The hole closed right around her tail. For a second, she was stuck, then she was slurped inside like a noodle.

The white numbers turned pink.

And then the digital space started to collapse.

* * *

><p>And not only the digital plane. The structure itself was falling apart. Mutants, robots and humans tried to avoid being hit by the rubble, but many more were buried under it.<p>

* * *

><p>Rainbow Dash was hovering over a mass of debris that looked like a snapshot of a stormy metal sea. She didn't know when and how she had regained consciousness, only that she was alive- and that she was alone. A tiny, multicolored spec under a red evening sky, hovering over a land of death.<p>

She heard birds chirping, somewhere in the distance. Real birds. She felt the wind on her coat, in her tail, her mane.

_They are all dead_, she thought. _We did it, but what's the use if I'm the only one left..._?

"Girls!", she cried, darting from one side to the others, scanning the twisted landscape.

"Girls!", she cried, "Are you still there? Say something stupid!"

She was going to burst into tears, but then she had an epiphany.  
>"Big adventure...?"<p>

_"...Tons of fun..."_, a weak, shaky voice replied from the darkness, much to Rainbow's delight.

Soon, other voices were joining in.

"...A beautiful heart..."

"...Faithful and strong..."

"...Sharing kindness..."

"...It's an easy feat and magic makes it all complete. Urrgh. My head."

Rainbow was able to pull Twilight out from under an elevator door. Then she followed the sound of the other voices.

* * *

><p>They found Spike kneeling next to a lifeless body. He had returned to his usual size.<p>

"Spike...? What's the matter? Who is that?"

Twilight put her chin on his head and hugged him with her front legs. He turned around to hug her back. Tears were streaming all over his face.

"It's Pinkie!", he cried.

"What...?"

Twilight used her magic to turn the dead pony in front of them around so she could see her face.  
>The mane and the tail were straight, there was nothing curly about them, and yet, the face...<p>

"She is dead!", Spike moaned, his voice muffled by Twilight's chest.

Twilight was shaking her head. "No."

She pulled free from Spike's grip and started levitating the body.  
>"NO!", she was yelling, "You can't be dead! Not you! FLUTTERSHY! FLUTTERSHY, HELP!"<p>

Rainbow Dash had arrived at the scene, her eyes wide in disbelief.

"It can't be! I called for her earlier on! She answered me! I know she did!"

_"DA"_, Pinkie Pie said,_ "Of course I answered! I'm not some sort of rude weirdo."_

The two ponies and Spike slowly turned around. Next to Rainbow, a big screen was hanging in the air, held up by tiny propellers. And on the screen, they saw a big, all too familiar smile.

"Pinkie...? Is that really you? Are you... in the computer?"

_"Sure looks that way. That would explain why the task manager is coming up whenever I'm trying to sneeze. Uuh, what do you got there?!"_

She had discovered the pink pony corpse. A robot arm dug its way out of the debris, seized the body and started squeezing it. It made squeaky noises.

_"Hihihi! This is funny!"_

By then the others had joined them as well.

"What in Tarnation?"

_"Call me ELECTRO PIE!"_  
>Pinkie started playing music that was horribly fitting.<p>

Twilight was grinding her teeth. "Point one: please turn this off. Point two: You have taken control over Celestia, but apparently you had to abandon your own body to do that. Point three: we need to get you back in your old body."

The screen started flickering, and another pony appeared next to Pinkie. It was Luna.  
><em>"I'm afraid we can't release her at this point, fair Twilight. You see, Pinkemina (CURSE YOU TWILIGHT SPARKLE!) is the only thing that is keeping my sister in check. At least for now, we need your friend in here to (CURSE YOU!) neutralize her."<em>

"There must be another way!"

_"Twilight"_, Pinkie said,_ "It's okay. Really, it is. I kinda want to (HATE YOU! OH, HOW MUCH I HATE YOU!) try this out. We could start by cleaning this place up. I bet there are still a lot of people buried under all of this mess. If we all work together, I'm sure we can save them all."_

Robot arms and tentacles appeared, as well as swarms of nanobots. They started moving the scrap parts.

"But...", Twilight objected.

_"Maybe later. Now we need to get busy."_

Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder. It was Applejack's.  
>"I think Pinkie is right. We have a job to do. Let's all do our part so that everyone can be free."<p>

"But what about her body?", Twilight asked.

_"I'm sure Fluttershy can keep it fresh for me."_

But Pinkemina would never return into her old body.

* * *

><p>A purple unicorn pony had appeared right in his crosshair.<br>The target.

The Hunter was confident that she couldn't see him from this angle. He raised his weapon and made sure to target the creature's head so that there wasn't any chance she would survive a hit.

_So this is her_, he thought. _She's a pretty one, even with those stitches. But this is the end of the line._

A lesser man than him would have wondered whether there even was a point in assassinating that thing after all that had happened. The battle was pretty much over. The Laboratories were gone. Everything was gone.

But he had been paid in advance.

Before he could pull the trigger, he was startled by a noise to his left. He slowly turned his head.

Right there, in a big pile of pipes and cables to his left, two big, green eyes were staring at him.

"Clever girl...", he said.

Then two powerful, orange hind legs hit his skull. The last thing he heard was the sound of cracking bone.

* * *

><p>They were able to recover many survivors. It took them many hours, and they even had to descend back into the lower dungeons to make sure no one had been left behind, but they were in no rush.<p>

Finally, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were flying out into the sky, while Pinkie Pie was lifting up the rest of the gang with a metal platform.

For a while, they were just standing there together, at the rim of the giant crater which had once been their prison. Helicopters were approaching in the distance. Things were going to get a lot more complicated, but right now, life was simple.

They were young, they were freaks, and they were free. There was a whole new world ahead of them.


	16. Granny Pie

"_...And this is how Equestria was made."_

I looked at the screen in front of me, skeptical, but probably not as much as I should have been.

I was sitting in front of a giant tree, the center of the forest- or rather, the orchard. Cables were wrapped around it like so many vines. There were several hover screens floating around. Robots were busy with gardening. **  
><strong>One robot was guiding a class of little foals on their school trip through the Crater of Destiny, as this place had come to be known after the Outbreak and the end of human civilization all these centuries ago. This tree was its center.

**"**Miss Pie..."

**"**_Call me Granny Pie! That's what all my friends do."_

**"**I am awfully glad you accepted to share this story with me, but I can't help but wonder if you've been entirely truthful with me..."

Pinkemina chuckled.**  
><strong>**"**_We live in a world full of wonders, so I guess yours are in good company! I told you the story exactly how I remember it, but of course you have to take it with a grain of salt- make that sugar, sugar is nice. My memory is not what it used to be, and boy, I tell you, it has never been any good."_

I sighed. How wonderful.

******"**So I guess there is no point in trying to figure out the inconsistencies."

**"**_What inconsistencies? Young colt, I am appalled! Now I know a lot of ponies my age tend to go inconsistent, which is what adult diapers are for, but I assure you I have already completely forgotten what we were talking about. What's your name again?"_

**"**Neustrasbourg."

**"**_Sorry to hear that. Anyhow, would you like another cupcake? A cup of tea?__"_

I nodded. Despite Pinkemina's gruesome tale, the need to recharge my sugar levels provided me with the necessary tree lowered one of its branches. At its tip, a flower bud opened up and a perfect, home-grow cupcake fell into my lap.

It was truly a remarkable tree. Its leaves were pink, and its bark was yellow. When the wind was rustling through the canopy, it made a sound that sounded an awful lot like '...Yay...'

**"**And this tree... Is it really your friend Fluttershy? The real Fluttershy, who fought on your side during the revolution?"

**"**_You got that right. Her roots are reaching to far away lands by now, healing and nourishing many, many creatures."_

**"**So what happened to the others?"

**"**_I sent Derpy Hooves and her clones through a series of experimental portals. One of them lead to a place where you are shrunken down and sealed in a snow globe, isn't that weiiird..._

_Rainbow Dash and Applejack settled down in a little town not far from here. They had a little farm, isn't that cute? A real one this time, not like the fake one back at the laboratories. I still visit their descendants sometimes. They have left a lot of grandchildren to play with, even a griffin, can you believe that?_

_Rarity spent the rest of her life in exile as punishment for the crime she had committed. It was a strange trial, really. The first we ever had. She was considered a hero back then, like all of us, but she herself had insisted that she needed to be brought to justice. The family of the filly she had killed didn't want a clone to replace their daughter, even though I could have created one. _**  
><strong>_Rarity continued making dresses and accessories, mostly for non-ponies. She never became very famous, but I understand she had a hoof full of faithful customers, and made lots of new friends._

_I have no idea what happened to Twilight Sparkle and Spike. I presume he is all grown up by now. Some say they have left this world long ago, traveling through parallel dimensions and even through time! Some say Twilight has turned into an alicorn, which is rather silly considering that alicorns turned out to be fake, at least in this world..._**  
><strong>_My guess is that they are on a never-ending quest for adventure, fighting crime and the forces of evil!_**  
><strong>_As for Pinkie Pie..."_**  
><strong>She paused.**  
><strong>**"**_Now what was I going to say right there? Ah fiddlesticks."_

An swarm of hovering kitchen utensils appeared on the clearing.

**"**_I provide the catering for a birthday party this afternoon. Sooo... Wanna lend me a hoof... Strousenberg?"_

**"**Neustrasbourg. And I'm afraid I'm not all that good at baking."

**"**_In that case, it was about time someone taught you how to bake... PINKIE PIE-style!"_

I was scared. So very scared. But then again, there was no arguing with the one and only Pinkemina Diane Pie.

* * *

><p>After a while, she asked me:<strong><br>****"**_You don't talk much, do you?"_

**"**It's just that... Hearing your story... All these obstacles you have overcome to win your freedom..."

I looked up, and found a pink camera eye staring at me from a distance that wasn't exactly comfortable and didn't even deserve to be called a distance.

**"**_You are not free. Is that it? You are living in a world without borders, a world we have fought so hard to create. And yet..."_

I computer honored me with a mechanic chuckle.**  
><strong>**"**_That's because you need to figure things out by yourself. Everyone has to do that. _**  
><strong>_Have another Fluttershy-cupcake. You're right- the ones you made really are horrible."_


End file.
